


Interdimensional Criminals

by Hiding_Under_The_Willow



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Lunch Club, Mianite - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft youtube, SMPLive, X-Life SMP, mcyt, smp earth
Genre: Big MCYT Crossover AU involving interdimensional travel, Capitalism ruined everything by commercializing interdimensional travel, Captain Sparkles is an interdimensional traveler living a double life between Mianite and SMPLive, Connor is tired of living in Schlatt's shadow as the coowner of Schlatt & Co., Gen, I've been developing this au for a very long time, More people to be added, Originally inspired by the Wilbur Soot Video 'I Robbed My Subscriber's Minecraft Realms', Techno's missing, Ted Daniel and Tommy are trying to stop him, Wilbur's a thief who travels between dimensions robbing people, and will be referred to as such by the characters, hermitcraft is there too, i swear to god if you read any of the found family relationships in this story as romantic i'll riot, interdimensional criminals au, the devices used for interdimensional travel are modeled to look like pocket watches, very cool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:08:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27030220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiding_Under_The_Willow/pseuds/Hiding_Under_The_Willow
Summary: Wilbur has been traveling for over a year, stealing from different dimensions as he went to keep himself going. Pocket watch in hand, he's seen hundreds of different dimensions. He's determined to reach his goal, but with the I.D.T.A. chasing after him at every corner, and his escapes from trouble becoming narrower and narrower, he's beginning to wonder if he'll ever find what he's looking for, or if he'll just end up sent home to deal with the broken remains of the old life that he left behind.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 80
Kudos: 320





	1. Prologue

_The previously dark room was now aglow, a soft pink and blue hue cast over the figure standing on the edge of the room as he stared off into a world he had never seen before. He stared through the portal towards the winter scape on the other side in absolute awe. He was barely even aware of the pocket watch in his hand, now slowly slipping from his grip._

_It fell to the floor, clattering against the wood floor boards of their small fortress._

_He didn’t even notice, so entranced by the tear in the very fabric of reality in front of him that he completely forgot about anything else around him. It was the craziest, most unexpected thing he had ever seen._

_He approached the portal, at first hesitant as the cold winds of the other world washed over him. He held out his hand, pushed it through the portal. It was certainly real, he realized. This was no elaborate prank._

_He walked through, not quite comprehending the situation he was in or what he was doing, his hand hovering over the hilt of the gold sword at his hip. The snow crunched beneath his feet, and the cold wilds grew stronger as the warmth of their fortress was left behind. There was not another living being in sight, but there was, far ahead of him, a tree, old, and twisted, with its leaves, somehow still green, somehow still clinging to the branches._

_He wandered towards the tree, looked up through its branches. It wasn’t until that moment, that he looked up at the cloud filled sky, that he realized how incredibly crazy this all was. The portal, the pocket watch, this other world which he had entered without considering the possible consequences._

_He turned back the way he had come, beginning to truly feel the cold of the world he was in. The portal was nowhere to be found, replaced by the never ending expanse of sparkling white. He frantically looked in every direction. Maybe he had just lost his way? But no, it was gone, and it was in that moment that he properly realized exactly what he had just done, and, to some extent, what he had left behind._


	2. Impulsiveness Works, Until it Doesn't

Wilbur sprinted down the sidewalk, pocket watch in hand, weaving through the crowds of people. He could hear three sets of footsteps chasing after him, and yelling, but he tried not to focus on it too hard. He turned abruptly into an alleyway between two buildings, which emerged onto another street on the other end, almost tripping over himself in the process. He risked a glance behind him just in time to see the I.D.T.A. begin to round the corner into the alley. He cursed under his breath. They were catching up. 

If he was going to get far enough away to jump to a new dimension before they caught him he would need to take some risks, and so he made a quick decision. The road in front of him was packed with traffic, waiting for the light at the end of the street to change from red to green, which could happen any moment. He ran into the street, treading between vehicles and sliding over the hoods of cars. Time wasn’t on his side, so he worked quickly, letting his adrenaline push him faster. By the time his feet landed on the sidewalk on the other side of the street he was breathing heavily. Not even three seconds after he reached the sidewalk, the light changed and cars began to zoom by. 

And his plan had worked, the I.D.T.A. was on the other side of oncoming traffic, left with no safe option but to wait until the light changed once more to run after Wilbur again. Wilbur didn’t particularly care to learn how long the light would stay green, so, after one last smug glance back at the I.D.T.A., he sprinted down the sidewalk once more, ducking into an empty alleyway a few buildings away. 

He quickly adjusted the settings on his pocket watch, already having known what dimension he would be hopping into even before the I.D.T.A. had made skipping dimensions necessary. He had a few resources he had fallen short of. Specifically and most importantly at the moment, his last pair of elytra had broken during his last run in with the I.D.T.A., and so he needed to replace them and restock on rockets. He was headed to dimension H:3:43:17. 

He heard the traffic stop again as he began to finish adjusting the settings on the watch. He glanced out at the street warily as he finished the final adjustments. He could already hear the I.D.T.A. making their way across the street, loud as ever. He pressed the button on top of the pocket watch and a portal opened behind him, the edges glowing blue and pink. He didn’t quite recognize the building it was opening into, but he was less worried about that than he was being caught by the I.D.T.A. He could figure out where he was with a bit of investigating, if he was caught and lost his pocket watch, well, then it would all be over. He stepped through the portal.

“Stop right there!” Ted called behind him as he and Tommy made their way to the end of the alley, Daniel just behind them. Wilbur looked back over his shoulder at them. He waved back to them, grinning in a way that said he knew he had already outrun them. Tommy sprinted forward, towards him, towards the portal, and Wilbur pressed the button on his pocket watch once more, the portal closing behind him.

He stood there for a moment, the adrenaline on the encounter still coursing through his veins. He let out a sigh of relief as he fully processed that he would probably be okay for at least a few more hours. He realized, as he went to put his pocket watch back in the front pocket of his vest, that his hands were shaking.

No matter how many times he had run-ins with the I.D.T.A., no matter how many chases he went through, no matter how many close calls he had, no matter how many times he outran them, he never got used to it. It was almost routine, he went into a dimension, he searched as much as he could, and anywhere between a few hours and a few days the I.D.T.A. had found him and he was forced to skip to a new dimension. He always beat them, outran them, and yet, the threat of them catching him, of them taking him back to his home dimension and leaving him there with no pocket watch, with no way out, with no way to keep searching… it never failed to shake him. 

He pushed the thought away for now. It was no use dwelling on fears of things he couldn’t control, and so he focused on the situation at hand; finding out where he was and how he was going to get where he needed to go. He realized he was underground, in a dark, half finished room, decorated with blackstone, nether brick, and soul lanterns, he turned to look behind him and was met with a staircase, a long one at that, with a light at the top. 

He realized it must lead up to the surface, luckily for him. He began the long trek up the stairs, which certainly wouldn’t help him regain any of the energy he had spent running from the I.D.T.A., but would hopefully at least bring him somewhere he recognized so that he could track down the shops of this words inhabitants and collect what he needed before traveling to a new dimension.

When he got to the top of the stairs, just about ready to collapse and desperately wishing he had been carrying some ender pearls with him. He was relieved, however, once he turned around and realized he had emerged right where he needed to. He was on the outskirts of the shopping district, which seemed, for all he could tell, empty.

It was definitely a relief that nobody was around. The last time he had visited this dimension in need of a few resources he had stumbled onto a gathering of some kind in front of the town hall. The entire island had been swarming with people for almost three hours, and Wilbur hadn’t exactly been keen on being spotted by any of them, seeing as he stole from them on a pretty regular basis, so he had hid in the back of the llama shop for the entire time.

He made his way through the maze of shops quietly, first stopping at the rocket shop to fill a shulker box full of rockets, then, since it was right next door anyways, grabbing a stack of golden carrots from the barge, and finally he made his way towards the elytra shop. He climbed the ladder up to the platform, opened the chest, and pulled out what turned out to be the last pair of elytra in the chest. The entire time he was glancing over his shoulder ever five seconds, looking out for anyone who he might not have originally noticed. Eventually the paranoia faded and he relaxed, too tired to really pay that much attention to his surroundings anyways. 

Wilbur slid down the ladder, elytra in hand. He spotted the book stop at the end of the road. Maybe, since there was no one around, it wouldn’t hurt to take the extra time to enchant his elytra? That way they would last longer this time around. He decided it was probably worth his time, then he could go hide somewhere remote to rest for a while before he skipped dimensions again.

He made his way into the book shop and began to pick out a few books, not quite noticing that he was not alone in the shopping district.

*****

The boomers were currently finishing out a meeting with Mumbo, discussing a possible project he thought they might be able to help with. The four of them - Mumbo, Bdubs, Tango, and Impulse - were all standing in the first floor of the building, blabbering on about something Impulse wasn't quite paying attention to. He had pulled an all nighter working on his base, and so he was more than a bit tired. He had zoned out at some point during the conversation that started after they came downstairs from the meeting room, and had been staring out the window at the empty street outside since.

That was, until the street wasn't empty anymore. Impulse didn't exactly think much at first as he watched someone walk into Keralis's book shop down the road, but as he focused a bit more on them, and what they were doing, he realized he didn't actually recognize them at all.

"Hey, uh, guys," He called for his friends' attention, not looking away from the figure in the book shop, "Do any of you recognize that guy?" He gestured in the direction of Keralis's shop.

Mumbo, who was standing closest to him, came to stand beside him, his gaze following Impulse's. His expression twisted into one of confusion and skepticism, "No, I don't believe I do actually. How strange!" He turned to the other two boomers who were both now also looking out the window curiously from where they were standing, "Do you think he's new?"

"Oh! It'd be fun to have someone new around!" Bdubs exclaimed.

"X probably would've said something if someone new were joining us, though." Tango stated, his eyebrows furrowed as he thought about it. It wasn’t often that someone new showed up, but when it did happen it was almost always something they were all informed about.

"I have to say, I appreciate his outfit, very dignified, kind of old fashioned, but dignified." Mumbo chimed in, examining the vintage button up, vest, and cravat the stranger was wearing.

"Uh, guys, I think he's stealing books from Keralis's shop." Impulse interrupted them as the stranger began to pluck books from Keralis's chests, not leaving any payment in exchange.

"Uh oh." Bdubs said as he watched the man continue to examine the books.

"Yeah he's definitely stealing books from Keralis's shop." Impulse stated flatly as the stranger went to the shops' anvil, books and elytra in hand.

"Oh dear, that's not good." Mumbo muttered.

"Hey, you think that's the same guy that's been stealing from my rocket shop for the last few months?" Tango proposed, "Because I honestly can't imagine any of the other hermits being behind it at this point."

"You think we should do something?" Mumbo asked uncertainly, looking back to Tango and Bdubs again.

"We should probably do something." Impulse agreed, his eyes still not leaving the man in Keralis's shop.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he also stole those elytra from Jevin's shop." Tango suggested in a skeptical, almost accusatory manner.

"Look, we shouldn't jump to conclusions, or make any wild assumptions" Bdubs asserted, "If he's new he just might not know how everything in the shopping district works."

"I don't know B, all of the stuff has a pretty clearly labeled price," Tango responded, "and even if he doesn't realize it that doesn't change the fact that he's stealing."

Bdubs sighed, "Look, I'll just go out and talk to him, see what's up." He continued, “I mean, that is kinda my job as the mayor's assistant. You all can come along if you'd like, but only if you're going to be civil about it."

And with that Bdubs was out the door, Tango hesitantly following behind him.

“We should probably go with them, huh?” Mumbo said, staring out the door where they had just exited.

“Yeah, probably.” Impulse agreed, his eyes finally leaving the window. The two of them exited the building just in time to watch things begin to unfold.

*****

Wilbur made his way down the steps of the shop, examining his newly enchanted elytra as he did. He was so exhausted and wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice when the door of a nearby shop opened, or when two pairs of footsteps that weren't there before began to approach him. It wasn’t until a voice broke the quiet of the shopping district that Wilbur was shaken from his own head.

“Hey there, stranger!”

Wilbur just about tripped over himself in surprise at the greeting, and he was sure he looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he looked up from his elytra at the approaching strangers, eyes wide as could be.

There were two people standing just a few feet away from him. One was shorter, with messy hair and a friendly smile, wearing a blue sweater and ripped black jeans. The man beside him was taller, with slicked back blond hair and red eyes that held in them more skepticism than Wilbur had ever seen one person hold. Wilbur recognized him vaguely as the owner of the rocket shop he stole from pretty often. There was redstone staining his vest. There were two others a while back, standing in front of another shop, one with a hole in the upper wall. One of the men was tall and lanky, with a well trimmed mustache, in a fitted, light green suit. Wilbur was pretty sure he had come through a portal into the man’s base once, though he had been wearing a different suit at the time, and had been, luckily, more than a little distracted by a smaller man in a red sweater. The other was pretty average in height, but muscular, with short brown hair, in a black t-shirt that was a little too big on him.

The man in the blue sweater continued to talk to him casually, not seeming to notice, or maybe not quite caring, how nervous Wilbur was or how suspiciously he had reacted to him. The same could not be said of the man with the red eyes, who’s hand was hovering over the hilt of a netherite sword hanging from his waist, and who’s expression communicated something along the lines of ‘don’t try anything stupid’.

“So, we couldn’t help but notice you in the book shop over there, since none of us have ever seen you around before,” The man in blue stated, “And, well, we noticed that you took a couple of books over there without paying for them.” His tone was friendly, not accusatory, as if he was trying to coax out an answer without actually having to ask the question he was communicating.

He didn’t have to though, because his friend with the red eyes did it for him, “Care to explain?” The man in blue elbowed him in the side, sending a small glare his way.

“Uh…”

Wilbur looked between the two of them, the man in blue with the kind smile, and the man with the red eyes with a sword at his hip. His mind raced for an answer that could easily get him out of this situation. His brain wasn’t exactly coming up with anything, so he let his impulses take over.

And he ran.


	3. An Unfortunate Series of Events

“Hey!” The man with the red eyes called as soon as Wilbur took off, and a quick glance over his shoulder told Wilbur he was running after him.

“Tango!” The man in blue called after the man with the red eyes.

Wilbur was immediately regretting the decision to run, but there was certainly no turning back now, so he pushed himself to run faster. He went off the path and began weaving between the haphazardly placed shops of the shopping district, hoping he might be able to lose his pursuer in the maze of buildings, but he could still hear the sound of the man's heavy boots hitting the ground just behind him, if anything he was getting closer, catching up.

Wilbur cursed, trying to speed up as much as he could despite how exhausted he was. 

He pulled his pocket watch out of his pocket.

God, he didn’t even know which dimension he was supposed to be traveling to next. He could always just head home to collect himself if he needed to, right? Yeah, that was probably the best idea. He began trying to adjust the settings on the watch, though it was fairly hard to do when you were running, and you only had one free hand. He tried his best anyways, continuing to weave his way haphazardly through the shopping district as he did.

Then an arrow flew past him. 

Then another.

The man behind him, who had begun to fall behind, had pulled out a bow and had begun shooting, not seeming to actually be aiming for him, but more so shooting warning shots to try and get him to stop.

Wilbur ran faster, still trying to properly adjust the watch with his free hand. He found he had exited the developed part of the shopping district. He was running through a fairly flat, clear section of the island, the land marked in a grid every few meters. He would be a much easier target here, but he didn’t have many other options so he kept running.

Then, for a moment, it was as if time slowed as the next arrow flew past him. He watched as it cut straight through the thin chain that had kept the pocket watch clipped to his vest, and embedded itself in the mycelium in front of him, where he tripped over it, tumbling to the ground. His pocket watch, no longer attached to him, fell from his hands and hit the ground a few feet in front of him, landing on the button and opening a portal on the ground, just a few feet in front of him, to a new dimension that certainly was not the one he had meant to go to. 

Wilbur watched, wide eyed.

And the pocket watch bounced, and it rolled, and it fell through the portal.

Wilbur scrambled to his feet in a panic, just about falling through the portal himself as he stumbled over his own feet. He realized, as he stared through the open portal, that he was looking down, and that his watch was falling. The portal was in the sky, looking down at the landscape below, a forest of some sort and a river.

“Shit…” Wilbur was panicking and he could hear the man with the red eyes approaching behind him. He realized, fairly quickly, that he needed to go through the portal, and fast, or else it would close on it's own, with him on one side and his pocket watch on the other. He would be stranded. 

But that fall…

Unless he managed to land in the river below, or use his elytra to glide down safely, he’d certainly be done for. Maybe not quite dead, but certainly in a fair bit of trouble. He began to quickly put on his elytra, though his panic certainly wasn’t helping him do so in an efficient manner.

He was struggling with adjusting the straps of the elytra when the man with the red eyes grabbed his arm, pulling him back from the portal.

Wilbur pulled back away from him, attempting to free his arm from the man’s grip, but he merely succeeded in moving them both closer to the edge of the portal again.

And suddenly the man’s gaze was on the portal instead of him.

“What in the world…” He stared at the rip in space as if he’d never seen anything like it, which he actually, most likely, hadn't. As he stared, his grip on Wilbur’s arm loosened, and Wilbur took the opportunity to escape, kicking him away and pulling back his arm.

The man with the red eyes stumbled back, holding his gut where Wilbur had kicked him.

And Wilbur stumbled back too, thrown off balance by the kick.

And he tripped backwards.

And suddenly he was falling.

And he was falling fast. He tried desperately to turn himself steady on his elytra, but he hadn’t had time to properly adjust them, they were about as close to slipping right off his back as they were to properly catching the air and allowing him to glide safely. He was more or less wildly hurtling through the air towards the ground with no real sense of direction.

If he had been panicking before, he was certainly freaking out now. His thoughts were racing a million miles a minute, far too fast for him to properly process any of them.

He was crashing through a canopy of trees before he could even process which way was up and which was down, and he was out cold before the water of the river washed over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was gonna wait a few days to post this, but I'm impatient, so y'all can get the new chapter early, as a treat.


	4. A Walk in the Woods

"I can't believe you guys convinced me to help with this, it's too fucking hot to be out here today." Connor groaned as they walked through the woods. He was fanning his face with the map Charlie had handed him at the beginning of the trip.

"Ah, come on Connor! It'll feel good to help out the community!" Travis encouraged him, smiling towards Connor's.

Connor merely glared in his direction in response.

"Yeah, and besides that, Charlie and I are literally paying you for helping, dude." Carson chimed in, looking back over his shoulder at Connor, "You don't get to complain if you're getting paid."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He turned to Jordan, "You've gotta agree with me Sparkles, it's way too hot to be doing this today, right?"

"Uh, nah, I'm pretty fine with it as long as I get paid at the end of the day." The captain replied, shrugging, "I think you're the only one complaining my dude."

"Maybe it wouldn't be so hot if you hadn't decided to wear a full suit to go collect wood in the middle of summer." Charlie snickered.

Connor scoffed, "Just because I have class doesn't mean you have to trash on my style."

"I have to agree with Charlie." Jordan stated, grinning at Connor, "I mean, I'm the most stylish one in the city, and even I dropped my usual coat for this."

Travis and Charlie burst out laughing at that.

"Oh, screw you Sparkles!"

Travis lightly elbowed Connor in the side, “Come on, lighten up dude, we’ll only be out for another two hours or so anyways.”

Connor rolled his eyes, “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

“Hey, uh, guys,” Carson stopped dead in his tracks, staring ahead towards the riverbank.

“God, what is it now?” Connor groaned, walking to stand beside Carson. His eyes widened as he realized what it was that had caught his attention, 

“Holy shit…”

“Oh my god,” Travis gasped, “That’s not good.”

Laying on the banks of the river, clothes torn and soaking wet, was a man. He seemed completely out of it. There was blood trickling down the side of his face from a gash in his forehead. Further inspection of the area revealed a pair of elytra, torn, leather straps snapped, hanging from a tree a few feet further down the river.

“Do you think he’s, y’know…” Charlie didn’t finish the question, all of them got the point.

“No, no, he would’ve respawned.” Jordan reassured him, “He must just be passed out.”

“Do… do any of you recognize him?” Carson asked hesitantly, “Cause I have no idea who that is.” 

“No clue.” Connor stated, “But I think he had an accident with his elytra.” He continued monotonically, gesturing towards the elytra hanging from the tree.

“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.” Carson responded, his eyes not leaving the stranger.

There was a moment of silence between them as they all stared at the stranger passed out on the banks of the river.

“We should probably do something.” Carson eventually broke the silence.

He stepped forward towards the river, Jordan followed after him and they began to pull the stranger fully out of the river.

“I’ll grab the elytra.” Charlie offered walking further down the river towards the tree where the elytra hung.

“Well this is interesting, isn’t it?” Travis asked, turning towards Connor.

Connor looked to the side, away from him, “Yeah, it’s certainly something.” He sighed.

And then he spotted something in the grass, just a bit further into the forest, something shining in the little bit of light coming in through the trees. Travis continued to talk beside him, but Connor wasn’t paying attention anymore. He squinted, trying to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. There was certainly something there, but he couldn’t quite tell what.

He glanced over towards Charlie, Carson, and Jordan. They all seemed properly distracted with the current situation, and so he broke off from the group. He gestured for Travis to be quiet as he walked away. Travis looked between him and the group silently before darting after Connor into the forest. 

“What are you doing?” He asked in a voice that could hardly be considered a whisper.

Connor merely shushed him, approaching whatever it was he had seen.

He bent down and picked something out from the grass; A pocket watch. It was dusty, and there was a small dent in the side. Connor turned it over in his hands, wiping off the dirt with his coat sleeve. It was in pretty good shape besides the dent, which could probably be fixed pretty easily. 

Travis looked over his shoulder at the item, “A watch?” He questioned thoughtfully. He gasped as a realization struck him, “Do you think it belongs to the guy in the river?”

“Not anymore.” Connor laughed, though Travis seemed less than amused by the comment, “This thing has to be some sort of antique, I could probably make some pretty good money off of it.” He examined it further, “I think it might be real gold.” He observed.

“Connor, that’s stealing.”

“Finders keepers my dude.” Connor retorted, standing back up, “If he didn’t want his shit stolen he shouldn’t have lost it in the woods.”

“Connor-”

“Did you two find something over there?” Carson’s voice cut the conversation short.

“Nope!” Connor responded cheerily, placing the watch in his suit pocket nonchalantly, “Thought I saw something, but I was wrong.” He grinned towards Travis after telling the lie, who looked more than a little upset about the situation.

“Okay, well, come on then,” Carson called, “We’re gonna take this guy back to town to fix him up.”

“Coming!” Connor called back. He turned to Travis, “I’ll cut you in on whatever I make selling this thing if you keep quiet.” He told him quietly.

He gave Travis a swift pat on the shoulder and then began his way back towards the others, hands in his pocket and a smile on his face.

Travis didn’t know what else to say. He looked down at the spot in the grass where the pocket watch had laid a minute before, an uneasy feeling about the situation settling in his stomach.

“Come on, Travis!” Carson called him again, pulling his attention away from the spot.

“Sorry!” Travis called. He took one last look at the spot in the grass before turning and jogging back towards his friends.

“What’s got you suddenly looking all happy Mr.’It’s too hot for this’?” Charlie questioned Connor as Travis caught up with the group.

“Oh, y’know, just glad we have an excuse to head home now.” Connor shrugged, grinning.

Charlie rolled his eyes at the answer, “You’re literally the worst.” He joked, feigning exasperation. 

And Travis stayed quiet, his unease following him the rest of the way home.


	5. A Short Interlude

Xisuma sighed, leaning back in his desk chair after the door to his office closed behind Tango, Mumbo, Impulse, and Bdubs. 

The four had come in telling him about an incident that day involving a thief in strange clothing with a pocket watch, a chase through the shopping district, and a mysterious portal. X had, after listening to their recount of the afternoon’s events, reassured them that it shouldn’t be too much of a point of worry for them, but asked that they keep an eye out for similar or equally strange events, and inform him if any such situations were to arise.

X was, in fact, not overly concerned with the events of that day. As long as it were to remain a one time occurrence, it shouldn’t be a problem. What had slightly worried him, was the theory Tango offered, that this mystery man they’d seen stealing from Keralis’s shop, was the same mysterious person who had been stealing from his rocket shop for the last few months.

Xisuma had received reports from several hermits over the last few months that items had started disappearing from their shops. The reports had lessened as Scar became mayor and, X assumed, the reports had instead been sent to him. Now though, with the sighting of an actual mystery thief, X had reason to be concerned once more.

He glanced down at the bottom drawer of his desk, where his own pocket watch was locked away until the end of the season.

If the man who the hermits had chased down in the shopping district was indeed, as Xisuma suspected, an interdimensional traveler, and if he was also, as Tango suspected, the mystery thief of the shopping district (as Grian had once called him), then that would mean that an interdimensional traveler had been traveling in and out of their world for months without anyone even noticing. The idea opened many possibilities, many that X didn’t particularly like. 

He would need to do some investigating.

*****

“Finally!” Daniel exclaimed, a look of relief crossing his face.

“You found him?” Ted asked, looking up from the silver pocket watch he had been fidgeting with as Daniel worked.

Daniel was already squinting at his screens once again, pressing buttons Ted didn’t know the purpose of. There was a moment of silence as he did so, his face slowly morphing back into one of frustration, “Oh, goddammit!”

“Okay, so I’ve got good news and bad news.” He said, turning towards Ted and Tommy, “Which one do you want first?”

“I could really use some good news, Daniel.” Ted looked up at him expectantly from where he was sitting in the grass.

“So, I found which dimension he jumped to,” Daniel continued, “He was in H-3:43:17, again.”

“He seems to go there a lot.” Tommy chimed in from beside Ted, not looking up from the rubix cube they had let him buy from a nearby shop.

“And the bad news?” Ted prompted, ignoring Tommy's comment.

“He’s already hopped dimension again, which means I have to go through and hunt him down again.” Daniel explained, exasperation clear in his voice.

“Which completely cancels out the good news…” Ted groaned, leaning back against the tree behind him.

“Yeah…” Daniel sighed, rubbing the side of his face tiredly.

“I swear, I’m just gonna tackle him next time we hunt him down.” Tommy stated, also leaning back against the tree.

“You say that every time he gets away Tommy, and yet you never actually do it when you have the chance.” Ted huffed in exasperation.

“Yeah, either stick to it or stop saying it.” Daniel agreed, going back to messing with stuff on his screens.

Tommy glared towards Daniel defiantly, but Ted spoke up, stopping the argument before it could even start.

“Okay, we’re all obviously stressed, and tired. Rightfully so, it’s been a long day.” Ted stood from his spot, stretching, “Why don’t I go hunt us down something to eat?”

Daniel nodded, “That’d be nice.”

“Tommy, you want to help me come search for a place we can get takeout?” Ted asked.

His eyes lit up, “Yes, definitely, absolutely.” He grinned, pushing himself from his spot in the grass. He would take just about any opportunity to explore the new dimensions they visited.

Ted nodded, “Okay, Daniel,” He turned towards him, “Me and Tommy will go find dinner, hopefully you can find what dimension he jumped to, we’ll find somewhere to stay and rest for the night, and we can go look for him in the morning. Sound like a good plan?”

“Sounds good to me.” Daniel answered, focusing back in on his work.

Ted nodded once more than began to walk back towards the city, gesturing for Tommy to follow him and placing his pocket watch back in his pocket.

“Adventure time!” Tommy exclaimed excitedly, speeding up to walk by his side.

And Ted couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm. He wished exploring new dimensions still created the same wonder for him that it did for Tommy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short break from the action to check in with a few of our other characters :)


	6. A Rude Awakening

Wilbur’s head was pounding. Every muscle in his body ached. He blinked in an attempt to clear his vision. It probably would’ve worked a bit better if he had his glasses on. He could hear something, voices maybe, somewhere, muffled. He couldn’t make out anything they were saying, or even how many voices there were. A part of him wished he could just fall back asleep.

He groaned, bringing one of his hands up to his forehead, where he felt a bandage of some kind. 

Where was he? He was fairly sure he was laying in a bed. Had someone found him after the fall?

The fall… 

“Crap.” He muttered as the events of earlier that day started to come back to him.

He began to push himself up in the bed, still clutching his head, which was still pounding, still making it hard to process what was happening, where he was.

A door opened ever so slightly on the other side of the room, creaking as it did. Someone peaked around the door, their gaze falling on Wilbur. There was chatter in the hallway behind them, but it quieted down as the stranger in the doorway shushed them. The man opened the door the rest of the way and approached Wilbur.

Wilbur looked up at him warily from the bed, really wishing he had on his glasses so he could tell literally anything about him besides the fact that he was wearing blue and had blond hair. The man held something out to him. A bottle. Wilbur hesitantly took it, examining the pink liquid within.

“It’s a health potion, it should help with the head injury and whatever else.” The man said, just loud enough for Wilbur’s head to pound in response.

Wilbur nodded slightly, uncorking the bottle and drinking it. It tasted of fruit and sugar. It didn’t take long for him to feel the familiar feeling of warmth that came with the potions effects, and his headache began to fade. He sighed, sitting back and leaning against the headboard of the bed behind him. He stared up at the ceiling, giving the potion a moment to do it’s thing.

“Thanks.” Wilbur said, looking back towards the stranger, who was sitting in a chair besides the bed. His headache was still present, but it was now significantly less severe, and at least now he was in no physical pain.

The stranger nodded, “It’s no problem dude, glad to help.”

“Hey,” Wilbur started, a thought popping into his head, “Do you happen to have my glasses?”

“Oh, yeah,” The stranger got up and walked around the end of the bed and grabbed them off a bench at the foot of the bed. He handed them to Wil, “Here you go.”

Wilbur took them, muttering a small, “Thanks.”

He put them on, blinking a few times to get used to them again. He glanced around the room now that he could properly see again. It wasn’t too big. The bed he was in was tucked into the far right corner. There was a plush bench at the end of the bed, where his vest and his elytra, which he realized were more than a bit broken, were hanging. His boots were also sitting on the bench. 

There was a large window on the wall to his left, looking out over a colorful cityscape. The sun was beginning to set. There was, of course, the stranger sitting behind him. His hair was messy and blond, not quite long enough to fall over his eyes. He wore rectangular glasses that were just slightly too big for his face, and a colorful jacket over a blue t-shirt. His eyes were kind and patient, waiting for Wilbur to take everything in before starting up any conversation. There was a fireplace on the wall opposite to him, lit with a small fire that Wilbur suspected would die out soon. 

Beside the fireplace was the doorway where the stranger beside him had come in, it was open, and there were at least four other unfamiliar people crowded into the hallway. Well, mostly unfamiliar. There was a man in a business suit, with a bright blue tie. His hair was brown, shaved on the sides, the tips showing remnants of where it must have, at one point or another, been dyed blond, bringing up memories Wilbur wasn't keen on dealing with at the moment. He looked curious, but, more than anything, annoyed to be there. Beside him was a taller man in green, a bit lanky, with honey blond hair and glasses. He waved towards Wilbur. Wilbur nodded back. In front of those two were two shorter men. One of them was taller than the other, but still shorter than the two behind him, with curly black hair that stuck up in random places. There was a flower tucked behind his ear, and he wore a white button up with a light blue bow tie. He seemed nervous, but he had a friendly look to him.

The man beside him, well, it took Wilbur a second to realize why exactly he recognized him. The man was small, but muscular, in a red and white coat with gold accents. It was unbuttoned and showed an off-white button up underneath, not quite buttoned up all the way either. There was a sword hanging at his side, diamond, enchanted. Sunglasses covered his eyes, despite the fact that they were indoors, rimmed in the same red as his coat. He had well kept, dark brown, almost black hair, and his face was lined with stubble, as well kept as his hair. 

Wilbur realized, very quickly, that he had once seen this man, in another, very different, dimension, while in the process of robbing the man’s friend. In fact Wilbur had almost been caught when he had come around looking for the friend Wilbur was robbing. Wilbur didn’t take long to notice the pocket watch chain hanging from the man’s front pocket. He was an interdimensional traveler, like Wilbur.

This train of thought was interrupted when the man beside him decided to finally speak up, “This is probably a bit overwhelming, I can ask them to leave if you want?" He offered, sending a small glare towards the men in the doorway.

Wilbur shook his head, "No, no, they're fine, I get this is probably a bit of a spectacle, it's fine that they're curious."

The tall man in green took that as an invitation to enter the room, and the other three followed him in. They settled around the room. The man in the suit leaned against the wall next to the door, still looking kind of annoyed to be there, but intrigued. The smaller man with the flower in his hair sat down against the wall between him and the fireplace. The man in green sat down on the bench at the end of the bed where Wilbur's belongings were laid. The traveler stood beside the man who had given Wilbur the health potion, relaxed, with his arms crossed over his chest lazily.

"Seems like you had quite the accident with your elytra." The man in the suit spoke up, there was a certain edge to his tone that made Wilbur feel almost like he was being made fun of, but he was far too out of it to properly acknowledge it.

He ran his hand through his hair, still damp with river water, a small nervous laugh escaping him, "I suppose you could say that, yeah. Quite the fall, that's for sure." He thought up a quick lie that hopefully wouldn't prompt too many questions, "I don't remember much of it if I'm being honest, I must've hit my head on a tree branch when I fell," He said, rubbing around the bandage on his forehead, "It's all a bit fuzzy."

“Well that’s certainly understandable considering how we found you.” The man beside him spoke up.

Wilbur listened as the five men described how they had found him, washed up on the shore of the river, his elytra hanging from a tree down stream. Wilbur picked up on their names as they all added their own commentary on the story. The man in the suit was named Connor, the man in the bowtie Travis, the man who had given him the health potion Carson, the man in green Charlie, and the interdimensional traveler was Jordan. They were all good friends, that much was obvious. They joked and teased each other as they told the story. Wilbur almost felt like he had stepped in on a conversation he wasn’t meant to be a part of.

Eventually, as they neared the end of the story, he decided to speak a question that had been burning at the back of his mind since he woke up, “When you all found me, did you happen to find a pocket watch anywhere nearby? I had it before the accident, but I think I may have lost it in the fall.”

Carson thought for a moment, “I don’t think we did.” he stated looking between the others, none of whom had any further answer to give besides maybe a shake of the head.

Wilbur’s face fell, “Are you sure? It’s very valuable to me.” He continued, “It was left with me by a very close friend, I… I promised I would return it to him when I saw him again.” He hesitated, “I can’t go home without it.”

He looked between all of them, his gaze for a moment catching Jordan’s, which communicated an understanding. He shook his head.

If Wilbur had been a bit more awake, he might’ve noticed the guilt on Travis’s face as he spoke, or the nudge Connor gave him when he for a moment opened his mouth to speak before falling silent once more. He didn’t notice though, instead leaning back against the headboard with a sigh, trying not to show just how disappointed and nervous the development made him. 

This was bad, very bad.

“Hey, it’s okay dude, it can’t be too far from where we found you.” Carson offered.

Wilbur nodded hesitantly, “Yeah, I suppose so… ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes it has been two weeks since I updated the story last. Yes I have had this chapter ready to post for over a month. No I do not know how this happened.


	7. Risky Decisions

Eventually, as the sun set over the horizon and the city was left lit by moonlight, the men slowly began filtering out of the room. First Connor, Travis quickly tagging along after him, then Carson, followed by Charlie, eventually leaving Wilbur alone with Jordan, who had hung behind for a reason.

“Hey, so, your pocket watch, huh?” He asked, obviously feeling out whether his reading of Wilbur as an interdimensional traveler was accurate or not.

“I suppose you’d have a similar model?” Wilbur offered in response, giving him a knowing look. There was amusement clear in his voice.

The man chuckled, nodding, “That I would, that I would.” He shifted on his feet, his hands slipping into the pockets of his coat, “You know, if you happen to need some help getting back to your home dimension, I’d be happy to be of assistance.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid I’ll have to turn you down.” Wilbur went on to explain, “I’m not exactly looking to leave without getting my pocket watch back.”

“I completely understand dude, but the offer still stands if you can’t find it for whatever reason.”

Wilbur had to stop himself from rolling his eyes, instead faking a smile, “I guess I’ll have to keep that in mind then.”

They said their final goodbyes and Wilbur was left to himself for the night. He looked out over the unfamiliar, colorful, maze-like city outside his window. Jordan’s offer kept replaying in his head.

He couldn’t not find his watch, couldn’t just simply go home, give up. It wasn’t an option.

…

Was it?

It couldn’t be. He’d been traveling, searching, for so long. He couldn’t just turn back now, could he? Go back home and pretend everything was fine when it wasn’t? The mere idea felt forbidden, unrealistic. He could go back home, pretend everything was fine, but he could never go back to his old life without first finding what he had started traveling in search of.

He had to find that watch, and he had to find it fast, before anyone else got their hands on it. There was no other option.

*****

“Connor, I really think you should just give him back the pocket watch.” Travis was following Connor through the nether hub back towards the plot of land that housed Schlatt, Connor, and Ty, as well as the Schlatt & Co offices. “I’ve got a bad feeling about all this.”

Connor scoffed in amusement, “It’s just a pocket watch dude, what exactly are you worried about?”

“I, well, I mean he seemed to have a… a sentimental attachment to it. I just, like, feel bad about all this, y’know?” His eyes traced over the nether hub watching for anyone who might be passing through the area It was empty. “And, I mean, what if… what if you get caught having stolen it?”

“Oh, what, are you worried people are gonna find out you knew I took it and you're gonna get in trouble or something?”

“What, I- no!” He sputtered, “Well, I mean, maybe, a little bit, but -”

Connor burst out laughing as he stopped in front of his home portal, “Really dude? If you’re that worried about getting in trouble, then just stay out of it and stop following me around inserting yourself into the situation.”

“But, Connor-” 

“Bye bye Travis!” Connor waved, smiling fakely and stepping back through the portal, disappearing.

Travis huffed, rolling his eyes before stepping through the portal after him. 

“Connor, you know that’s not the real problem I have with this!” He called after the business man as he jogged down the path towards the Schlatt & Co. building to catch up with him.

Connor looked down at him as he caught up, sighing in exasperation, “Well then, please, do enlighten me of your complaints with the current situation, Travis.” He entreated sarcastically, gesturing for him to continue.

“Look, I’m just saying, I think you should give it back! You don’t know the story behind it, it could be, like, a family heirloom or something.”

“Dude he said he got it from a friend.” He continued, pushing his way through the doors of the Schlatt & Co offices, “Besides have you even seen this thing,” He turned to face Travis, pulling the watch from his pocket, “His friend’s probably fucking rich if he could afford something like this! He could buy a new one if he likes.”

“But, Connor-”

“You know what,” He cut off Travis, “I’d go as far as to say that dude probably has enough money to buy his friend a new watch himself. Like, did you see the way he was dressed? There’s no way he doesn’t have money.”

“You don’t know that.” Travis argued, “And even if you were right that wouldn’t change the fact that it would still be wrong to steal it.”

Connor rolled his eyes, running a hand through his hair, “See, and here’s the thing you're missing here dude, I simply  _ do not _ care.”

“Connor!”

“What? I really don’t!” He exclaimed defensively, “I really don’t care and I simply think you should know that you're wasting your time and energy before further attempting to convince me.”

It was at that moment that Ty emerged from the stairwell, a very confused look on his face, “Uh, am I interrupting something?”

“Ah, Ty! Just the unpaid intern I was looking for.” Connor greeted him, completely ignoring his question and turning away from Travis.

“Yeah, I was just locking everything up for the night. Did you need something?” Travis swore he heard him mutter something about being the only intern, but the comment was ignored.

“I did want to ask you about something, actually, since you keep track of all the company records and everything.” Connor started, “Do you know if any of our more, uh, _ financially stable _ clients would be interested in  _ discreetly _ purchasing an antique pocket watch?”

Ty raised an eyebrow, confusion and skepticism clear on his face. He shifted on his feat, “I mean, I don’t know, I guess it would depend on the watch, and the price. Why?”

“Well you see I’ve recently… come into possession of such a watch,” He held it up for Ty to see, “and it needs some touch ups but I think it could fetch us a pretty large sum of money if we pitch it to the right person.”

“He stole it,” Travis piped in, “He stole it from an injured man we found unconscious in a river.”

“Okay well when you put it like that it sounds a lot worse than it actually is.” Connor huffed as Ty took the watch from his hands to examine it.

“What? When I explain the line of events that actually happened?” Travis challenged, “I wonder why that is?” He deadpanned.

“Is this real gold?” Ty questioned as he examined the watch, ignoring their bickering.

“I believe it is.” Connor grinned, “It’s a bit damaged but I don’t think it’s anything we couldn’t figure out how to fix.”

Ty fiddled with the knobs on the side of the watch, looking up at the clock on the wall to match the times properly. “The front face spins, which is pretty weird.” He noted, “It’s got a bunch of letters on it.”

“Doesn’t Jordan have a watch like that?” Travis questioned, moving closer to get a good look at it.

“Why would I know?” Connor mumbled, watching over Ty’s shoulder as the intern tested all of the watch's settings.

“I don’t know, I was just asking.”

Finally, Ty pressed the button on the top of the watch. There was a moment of quiet disappointment as nothing happened.

“Well, that might be a problem.” Connor proposed, crossing his arms, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Uh, guys?” Travis was the first to notice the swirl of blue and pink light as it appeared a few meters across the room from them, but as it grew, and a cool breeze that was not there before blew over the room, they all turned to look.

“What the fuck?” Connor took a few steps towards the strange rip in reality. 

A freezing wind swept over the wind through the opening, the other side of which seemed like an endless expanse of white, the sky barely more grey than blue. The edges of the opening glowed a bright, swirling blue and pink that cast a soft light over the entire room.

Ty looked between the watch and the portal rapidly, the puzzle pieces connecting in his head as he did.

He pressed the button on the watch once more and the opening closed, the cold winds of the other world ceasing. 

The three fell silent as they all processed what had just happened.

“Connor… I really think it’s time to stop.” Travis’s voice was soft and uneven, his gaze not leaving the spot where the portal had been moments before.

“What?” Connor whipped around to look at Travis, “This is the most exciting thing to happen in weeks! I don’t know what we just discovered but whatever it is, it’s a huge deal!”

“Exactly, Connor!” Travis continued, turning towards him, “We have no idea what just happened or what we’re dealing with. At this point you should really just drop it before something goes wrong.”

Connor rolled his eyes, walking back to Ty and holding out his hand for the pocket watch. “If you’re really that worried, you could just leave Travis, like I said, you don’t have to be a part of this.” Ty handed him the watch, not joining in on the argument.

“Connor, dude, please, this has gotten out of hand.”

Connor pressed the button on the watch once more and the portal reopened, still in the same land of infinite snow, but now the silhouette of a forest could be seen on the horizon. He ignored Travis, approaching the portal. He stuck his hand through.

Travis grabbed his wrist, pulling him back from the portal as another cool breeze swept over them. “Connor, please, take a moment to think about this.”

The business man simply pulled himself from Travis’s grip before stepping through the portal, the snow on the other side crunching under his feet.

“Ty, come on.” He called back for the intern as he made his way deeper into the other world.

Ty hesitated before following after him.

He glanced back to Travis, who sighed.

“Please, at least stay safe.” He said.

Ty nodded, “I’ll try and keep him out of trouble.”

With that he disappeared into the endless snow, the portal closing behind him as he jogged to catch up with Connor.

And Travis was left, alone, in the lobby of the Schlatt & Co. offices, to wait for their return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me? Posting chapters two days in a row because I feel bad for forgetting to post for two weeks? It's more likely than you may think!


	8. The Calm Before the Storm

Travis sat on a bench in the foyer of the office building for hours. He almost fell asleep a few times. It had been such a long day, and so much had happened that it was almost hard to process that they had left the city at the beginning of the day just to collect wood. Every time he was on the verge of sleep though he would be stirred back awake. A creak in the building’s foundation, a tree branch tapping against the window, the footsteps of a mob outside, each sound he heard sparked a bit of hope in him that his friends had returned.

They never did though, and as time continued to pass a dread set itself upon him.

What if something had happened to them? What if they didn’t know how to come back? What if they _couldn’t_ come back?

It was just past four in the morning, as the moon began to hang lower in the sky, that a true fear settled over him and he knew he couldn’t just sit there waiting anymore. He was anxiously pacing the lobby, his gaze shifting to where the portal his friends stepped through had once been every few seconds. 

What could he do? He wasn’t even quite sure of what had happened.

Then a thought struck him.

Surely the man who Connor had taken the watch from - who’s name, he was realizing, none of them had ever asked about - would know, wouldn’t he? It was his watch after all, he must’ve known what it did.

It was worth a shot at least.

*****

Jordan had decided the night before that he needed to do something to help the man they’d found in the river retrieve his pocket watch. He could tell when he talked to him that night after the others had left that the watch meant a great deal to him, and that he certainly wasn’t looking to go back to his home dimension as Jordan had offered to help him do, and also that he was anxious to leave the world quickly.

Jordan didn’t know his reasons, he didn’t know his attachments to the watch, he didn’t know why he was a traveler, but he could tell that there was something deeper to it than was being let on. So, he wouldn’t press the subject, but he would find a way to help.

Most people of the world stayed up late and slept in late, but Jordan was used to waking up early in the morning, so it couldn’t hurt too much to push it a little bit earlier than usual. So here he was, the time just barely approaching five in the morning, making his way through town as the stars slowly started to fade from the sky and the moon was on the verge of falling to make way for the dawn.

The building they’d brought the man to was near the outskirts of town, somewhere between the forest and Carson and Charlie’s offices. Jordan knew it was someone's old base that they no longer used, but he couldn’t quite remember exactly who’s. He slipped through the front door and down the hallway towards the back bedroom without thinking too hard about it.

When he’d first formulated this plan to help the mystery traveler, it had all kind of hinged on a hope that he would be a bit of an early riser, or, at least, not too heavy of a sleeper, but when he knocked on the door and was met with no response he realized that maybe that was an assumption he perhaps shouldn’t have made.

He opened the door just a crack, peeking in. Sure enough the man was fast asleep, wrapped up in all of the blankets of the old bed, just his hair peeking out from under them. His glasses were sat on a small side table beside the bed.

Okay, well Jordan could deal with this. He just hoped the man wouldn’t be too angry to be woken up this early in the morning. 

*****

There was a noise, soft and barely audible in Wilbur’s ears. Then another, slightly more clear, a voice, one he recognized but couldn’t quite make out.

And then finally he could make it out, a quiet voice, “Dude, dude wake up.”

He stirred, stretching as he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. It was still fairly dark in the room, he realized, and there was a figure standing above him, a blur of red, white, and brown in his tired haze. For a second, in the warmth of the bed, still not quite fully awake, he almost mistook the place for his old base, and the bed his own, and the figure above him…

“Mm, Techno…” He mumbled, barely audible, half asleep, reaching to his right for his glasses, and as he put them back on and his vision cleared, and the figure above him was one he could make out, his face fell.

“What was that?” Jordan questioned. 

No, no, of course it wouldn’t be. It couldn’t be. 

He blinked a few times, the events of the day before coming back to him as he remembered where exactly he was. He pushed himself up in the bed and Jordan took a step back.

“Oh, ah, nothing,” He waved off the question tiredly, running a hand through his hair, “What, uh, what time is it?” He rubbed his eyes once more, pushing up his glasses in the process.

The captain chuckled a bit nervously, “It’s, uh, 5am.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow, readjusting his glasses, “And, why exactly, did you wake me up at 5am?” He yawned.

“Well, uh, you wanted to get out of here right? Find your watch without any hassle from anyone in the city, and leave without any issues?” Jordan offered, his eyes trailing towards the window where the sun could just barely be seen peeking over the horizon.

“That’s… about right, yeah.” Wilbur agreed, nodding halfheartedly.

“Well, I thought I’d take you out to the spot where we found you before anyone else came along and snatched you up for a tour of the city or whatever. That way you can find your watch without too much trouble from anyone else and get out as quick as you’d like.” He added, “Trust me, people here tend to get excited whenever someone new shows up, if you aren’t out of here by at least eight you’ll have probably three guys at your door offering to show you around the city before you can even think about going out to look for your watch.”

Wilbur took a moment to process the information, blinking, “Okay, but did it have to be at five in the morning, cause honestly yesterday was not the type of day you wake up at 5am after.”

Jordan sighed, crossing his arms, “Look, do you want to get out of this city or not?”

Wilbur rolled his eyes, “Yeah, okay, whatever.” He pushed himself out of the bed, stretching, and walked to the bench at the end of the bed where the rest of his stuff was laid out.

“So, you're from, uh, M-1:45:17? Yeah?” Wilbur asked, trying to start a bit of small talk to make things less awkward as he began to put on his vest and his cravat over his button up and suspenders.

Jordan raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the wall, “How’d you know that?”

“Ah, I went there once. I stole from one of your friends I think, and you almost caught me when you came around looking for him.” He thought for a moment, “What was his name? Tim? Tod?”

“Tom?” Jordan questioned, almost laughing, “I almost caught you robbing Tom?”

“Yeah, yeah, him!” Wilbur chuckled as he adjusted the collar of his shirt, “I say friend, but honestly you seemed pretty upset when you came around looking for him.”

Jordan shrugged, “Eh, we tend to argue every once in a while, but it’s all in good fun.”

Wilbur turned his head towards the fireplace. There was a mirror hanging above the mantle, and it was the first time he had seen himself in the mirror since after the fall.

He carefully removed the bandage from his forehead to reveal a small, half healed cut, crossing just through his left eyebrow. He reached up to trace his finger over it, leaning closer to the mirror. It was still a bit sore to the touch. He thought it might leave a scar. He remembered something he’d been told once, about how injuries healed by health potions often did.

The next thing he noticed was his hair, which was even more of a mess than usual. “Do you have, like, a comb or something?”

Jordan reached into his pocket, pulling one out, and tossed it to Wilbur, “Of course.”

Wilbur laughed as he caught it, “Honestly, I should’ve guessed you just carried one around considering your hair.”

“Hey, you always have to be prepared for an emergency.” Jordan defended himself jokingly.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you have to tell yourself, buddy.” Wilbur rolled his eyes halfheartedly, chuckling as he worked on getting his hair at least somewhat presentable. 

They continued to talk as Wilbur finished fixing up his outfit and his hair, and as he slipped on his boots. It was lighthearted, and friendly, and there was no urgency, no tension, no prying questions, no mention of things long gone. It was the first time he’d had a conversation like that in almost two years. Despite the current situation, he was probably the most relaxed he had been in a long while.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

Jordan and Wilbur looked between each other, eyebrows raised. Jordan shrugged.

“Who is it?” Wilbur called.

Travis peaked around the door, “It’s, uh, me.” His voice was quiet, and there were dark bags under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept at all that night. There was a nervousness about him that wasn’t there yesterday, “Could I, um, could I talk to you for a moment,” He hesitated, glancing towards Jordan, “Alone?”

Wilbur furrowed his eyebrows, “What about?” There was something about Travis’s arrival that had immediately brought down the mood in the room, and Wilbur found himself growing tense.

“It’s… it’s about your pocket watch.” He swallowed nervously, fiddling with the cuffs of his shirt, “It’s a bit of an emergency.”

Wilbur exchanged a frantic glance with Jordan, who looked about as confused and concerned as he did.

“What did you do?”


	9. The Stages of Grief

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hi, yes, if you're looking for the chapter that wasn't here before, you're in the right place! If you're reading this story for the first time at a later date and have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it :')

“So, basically, Connor and Ty jumped dimensions?” Jordan questioned, his eyes wide as he processed the information they’d just been given.

Wilbur groaned, his head in his hands, “This can’t be happening! I’m dreaming! There is no possible way this could have gone worse.” He lamented, a thousand emotions making their way across his face at once.

Travis shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

The three of them were still in the old base, in the room Wilbur had spent the night in. The door was locked, and the room was now bathed in dawn sunlight. Wilbur sat on the edge of the bed, completely panicking, Travis was sat in the chair where Carson had sat the day before, having told the story of the previous day’s events, and Jordan leaned against the wall next to the bedside table.

“I can’t believe you knew he took my watch and you didn’t say anything.” Wilbur was speed running the stages of grief, and he had already made his way to anger. 

“I… I didn’t want to get him in trouble, and, I just, I thought I could convince him to just give it back!” Travis explained defensively, “If I had known what the watch actually did I probably would’ve said something, but, like, I still don’t really know what even happened.”

The absolute look of exasperation on Wilbur’s face as he looked up at Travis was one that told Jordan it was time to step in. He walked over and put a hand on Wilbur’s shoulder. 

“Okay, we’re all obviously very tense, this is a lot of information to take in, let’s just… take a moment.”

He looked down at Wilbur, who met his gaze, for a second looked as if he was going to retort, before sighing and resigning to lying back in the bed and stare at the ceiling.

And so Jordan set about the task of explaining interdimensional travel to Travis, pulling out his own pocket watch to help explain, and Wilbur propped his head up on his hand to watch as they talked.

His anger began to fade as Jordan worked through Travis’s questions.

_ “And you’re from another dimension?” _

_ “What are other dimensions like?” _

_ “How many other dimensions are there?” _

It reminded him, in a way, of when he had first opened up a portal with his watch and started traveling almost a year and a half before. Of course, at the time, he had not had anyone to teach him about interdimensional travel, he had just had to pick up on what he could as he went, but there was something about the ignorance on the subject that made him nostalgic.

Then, as he calmed down, a thought popped into his head, one that made him hopeful.

“Wait, Travis,” He sat up in the bed, “You said when Ty opened the portal he had been trying to match the time on the watch to the one on the clock. Do you know what time it was? And what letter he had the outside set to?”

“I, uh, I think it was around nine.” It sounded more like a question than a definitive answer.

Wilbur shook his head, “No, I need the exact time he had the watch set to, down to the second.” He asserted, “If we know that we know what dimension they went to, we can go find them.”

“I really don’t know, I didn’t get a good look at it. I’m sorry.”

Wilbur sighed, leaning back in the bed once more, “No, no, it’s fine, I couldn’t expect you to know that anyways.” He hesitated before continuing, “It probably wouldn’t have worked anyways, they could’ve hopped dimensions again or something. It’d be ridiculous to go hunting without any more evidence.” His voice was strained as he said the last sentence. It was an ironic and incredibly hypocritical thing for him of all people to say, and he knew it was, and he said it anyway.

“There’s gotta be something we can do, right?” Jordan asked, “It’s not like we can just sit back and let it play out.”

“You’re both sure neither of them knew anything about interdimensional travel before this?”

Jordan and Travis both nodded.

“Which means there’s no way they actually know how to get back.” Wilbur mumbled, a realization coming over him.

Travis met his gaze, “We’ll figure out something, won’t we?”

Wilbur knew what he had to do. He nodded, “We’ll figure it out, you just gotta give me a while to think about it.”

A silence fell over them. Wilbur knew what he had to do, but he was unsure if he could, if he could take the risk.

“Well, uh, since it seems you’ll be around a bit longer than expected, maybe you’d like that tour of the city while we try and come up with something?” Jordan offered in an attempt to break the awkward silence, a call back to their earlier conversation, which now felt like it happened days ago despite it only having been about an hour, “Might as well know how to get around.”

Wilbur sighed, pushing himself from the bed, “Yeah, you know what, sure.”

The IDTA would, hopefully, be here soon. Whether Wilbur liked it or not, they were always just behind him. He just had to stall a little longer, and then he could enact the plan he had resigned himself to. It was a risk, a big one, one that might put a stop to the game of cat and mouse he had played with them for the last year and a half, but it was also one that, oddly enough, he was willing to take, if only it meant someone else didn’t end up like he had.


	10. A Reunion

“S-3:9:11, right?” Ted asked as he worked at adjusting the settings of his pocket watch.

“That’d be correct.” Daniel confirmed, looking over the dimension's description in his logs.

“Oh! I don’t think I’ve ever been to that one before.” An excitement was obvious in Tommy’s eyes and he was bouncing impatiently on the balls of his feet.

“Me neither, but we’ve got some notes here…” Daniel raised an eyebrow as he read through them.

“I went once, a long time ago.” Ted explained, a tinge of embarrassment making its way into his voice, “Those notes are probably a mess, and outdated, they won’t be much help, but it’s a nice place. There’s some nice people there.”

“Isn’t it also the one that Jordan runs around in all the time?” Daniel questioned, the screens in front of him disappearing as he tucked the device he was holding back into the inside pocket of his coat.

Ted sighed as he realized that Daniel was, if fact, correct, “Yeah, that’s the one.”

“Ah, well that’ll be interesting.”

“Let’s hope it’s not.” Ted rolled his eyes, “Now, you both ready?”

Daniel nodded, adjusting the sleeves of his coat “As ready as ever.”

“I’m always ready.” Tommy beamed, placing his hands on his hips.

Ted had to stop himself from laughing at Tommy’s confidence, “Well, then,” He pressed the button on his watch and a portal began to open up in front of them, “Let’s get this show on the road.”

They emerged from the portal on the inside of a very large tree, a nether portal a few feet to their left, and, luckily, no one in sight. Ted was immediately on edge, closing the portal behind them and going to check outside their current location for anyone who might’ve seen them come through, but it was quiet.

Well, at least, it was quiet where they were. They were in the middle of a vast, colorful cityscape, and though it was early morning, there were voices echoing from the streets, far off in the distance, in different parts of the city. Things had changed since Ted had last been there, and it seemed like the city was thriving. He couldn’t help but smile as Tommy rushed to his side, a look of excitement clear on his face.

“Yo!” His eyes, wide as ever, scanned over the skyline of the city, “You didn’t tell us it was like this! This is so cool.” 

“I told you, it’s been a long time since I’ve been,” He laughed, “Things have grown a lot.”

“It’s certainly something.” Daniel chuckled nervously, his eyes scanning over some of the more… questionable builds.

“Are you kidding, this place is awesome!”

Ted shushed him jokingly, “Tommy, at this rate if he’s even in the city he’ll hear you coming from a mile away and skip dimensions again.” 

“Ah, shut up Ted.” Tommy rolled his eyes halfheartedly, laughing.

“Yeah, let the kid have his fun, dude.” Daniel teased, nudging him in the side.

“Okay, well it’s not my fault if you’re doing more work trying to track this guy down again within the next hour because Tommy scared him off.” 

“Let’s be honest with ourselves Ted, with our track record I’ll probably be doing that by the end of the day anyways.”

Ted scoffed, laughing, “Okay, you may be right, but you could at least pretend to have a little more faith in us.”

“Yeah, come on Daniel, I’ve got a good feeling about this time!” Tommy said, turning back to look at him with a smile on his face.

As their banter continued, Charlie made his way through the city towards the nether portal, eventually turning the corner to the street and spotting the three unfamiliar men. He stopped in his tracks for a second as he tried to remember if Carson had told him about anyone new in the city besides the man they had found yesterday, and he couldn’t seem to recall any such news ever being given to him. There was something though, about the tallest man in the group, that seemed slightly familiar to him.

“Hey there!” He called out to them after a second of thought, approaching them and waving.

They all tensed for a second, before Ted turned and spotted him, and he relaxed a bit, waving back.

The other two, though a bit confused, took after him, waving back.

“I don’t think I’ve seen the three of you around before, are you guys new?”

“Oh, no, we’re just passing through.” Ted explained, “We’re looking for someone, actually.”

“Oh, well I might be able to help with that!” He held out his hand for Ted to shake, “I’m-”

“Charlie, right?” Ted interrupted him, shaking his hand, “I stayed in the city for a short while a few years ago, we met briefly.” He added, noticing Charlie’s confusion. “I’m Ted, and my friends here are Daniel and Tommy.”

“Oh, yeah!” Charlie exclaimed, “I thought I recognized you from somewhere. You stayed with Carson for a week or so back around the time we were first putting everything together here, right?”

Ted nodded, ignoring the questioning looks he was getting from both Daniel and Tommy, “Yeah, everything was a lot smaller around here back then.”

“Well, it’s great to see you around again, Carson will probably be excited to see you.” 

“Oh, well I don’t know how long we’ll be staying, but maybe I’ll visit if I get the time.” There was a nervousness in his voice that said he was looking to do anything but. He quickly changed the subject, “So, uh, you said you may be able to help us find who we’re looking for?”

Charlie shrugged, “Depends who you’re looking for, but I know almost everyone in the city, so I could probably be at least some help. Who is that you’re looking for exactly?” 

“Well, he doesn’t actually live in the city, but we think he was in the area recently. About 6’3, dark puffy hair, glasses, dresses kinda formally? He carries a pocket watch with him.”

“He’s a real asshole.” Tommy added casually, earning a disapproving nudge in the side from Ted.

A look of realization made its way onto Charlie’s face as Ted described the thief they had been tracking for the last year and a half, “Oh! Well, I don’t know about the asshole part,” He laughed, “But I know who you’re talking about! Oh, what’s his name…” Charlie thought for a moment, “We never thought to ask his name, huh?” He thought out loud, looking down at his feet, “But whatever, yeah, I know who you’re talking about!” 

He looked back up at Ted, “We brought him into the city yesterday, he’d had an elytra accident in the woods or something and Carson insisted on helping him out. I actually saw him with Travis and Sparkles just awhile ago, we could probably find them.”

Daniel’s eyes lit up, “Oh, well that’d be extremely helpful, if you could take us to them that is.”

“Yeah, of course, come on, they were near the center of the city last I checked.” He waved for them to follow and begin making his way down the street. Tommy was quick to run to his side, excited to chat about the city. Meanwhile, Ted stayed a bit back, Daniel at his side.

“You never told me you stayed here before we met.” He said, though it sounded more like a question, “What happened to Mr. ‘Oh I can’t stay in a single dimension for more than a week’?”

“It wasn’t very long, just over two weeks.” Ted shrugged, avoiding his gaze, “It was the first place I traveled after, well… everything. I needed a quiet place to stay while I processed everything and figured out what to do next, and this place provided that. That was it.”

“Oh? Is that all? Because your records say otherwise.”

Ted rolled his eyes, “Look, can we just… talk about this later? We have stuff we need to focus on right now.”

“Whatever you say, big man.” Daniel teased him, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“God, you’re spending too much time with Tommy, his vocabulary is starting to rub off on you.” Ted laughed, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever dude.” Daniel chuckled, “Tommy’s the only person besides each other that either of us hangs out with, don’t act like he doesn’t rub off on you too. I see the way you smile whenever he gets excited about a new dimension.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You have no proof.” Ted said smugly, looking ahead of them as Tommy bounded beside Charlie, who eagerly answered all of his questions.

“Uh huh, okay, yeah, whatever you say Ted.”

*****

Wilbur walked alongside Travis and Jordan as they showed him around the city. It was all intriguing and strange, and yet Wilbur could barely focus on any of what they were telling him about the array of diverse buildings, and he could tell that their hearts weren’t quite in it as they explained the city's history either. The disappearance of Connor and Ty hung heavy over all of their heads, and though the other two seemed almost lost as they failed to come up with any sort of new plan, Wilbur merely felt hopeless in the fact that he knew his plan, and he knew the exact danger it presented, and there was nothing he could do but wait to face what was to come next.

Doubts had started to crawl through his head. What if the I.D.T.A. had tracked Connor and Ty’s jump and had followed them instead, thinking it was him? What then? He had no back up plan if they never found him. 

It wasn’t until he heard a familiar voice echoing through the streets some distance away that his doubts subsided, at least, his doubts that the IDTA would find him had subsided. Now he was left with only his doubts in the plan itself. Every instinct in his body was telling him to get out of the city as he heard Tommy’s voice move further through the streets, and he had to ask himself again if this was something he was prepared to do, a risk he was willing to take, just to help a few strangers.

But in his head he knew it was the right thing to do, to help them, to make sure they didn’t end up like him, giving up everything searching endlessly for something, someone they might never find.

He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t notice when Charlie led the I.T.D.A. around the corner behind him, and he had barely heard Tommy shout upon seeing him when he whipped around, startled by the sudden noise, and was promptly tackled to the ground by the youngest member of the I.T.D.A.


	11. The Beginning and The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, you might notice that this is, in fact, the same chapter that was posted a few days ago. You'd be correct in that assessment! There was a mistake in posting the chapters and in consequence I've had to make some changes to the chapters to accommodate for it. There is, however, an actual new chapter posted, one that was supposed to be posted awhile ago which should hopefully make everything up to this point make more sense! So, head back to Chapter 9 and everything should, hopefully, be better now. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you enjoy the actual 9th chapter, and, I hope you continue to enjoy the story! An actual new chapter should be coming soon :)

When Wilbur had first met Ted and Daniel he hadn’t been traveling for very long. It had been just over a month since he had discovered exactly what the pocket watch did, and about five months since he had first found it, and since he had last seen Techno. He had only hopped through about four different dimensions, spending about a week in each searching around, surviving off of stolen food, before jumping to the next world. He was still navigating how exactly this all worked, still getting used to traveling. He hadn’t exactly met any other travelers, and the watch hadn’t exactly come with instructions, so he still didn’t exactly have the proper language to explain his travels, but he was sure he was looking in the right direction.

On this particular day, he had just traveled to a new dimension and hadn't been there for more than a few hours. it was late afternoon, the sun would start setting within the next few hours. He was making his way down a fairly empty street and he found himself in front of a bakery. The lights were off, and the sign said closed, but the door was unlocked. He walked in casually as not to draw attention to himself. 

There was an assortment of bread in the display, all of it baked fresh that morning, but now cold after sitting out, untouched all day. It would be stale by the next morning and get thrown out and replaced by new loafs. He figured they wouldn’t be missed, and they’d make for at least a halfway decent meal. He grabbed a few of the little loaves and stashed them away in his inventory.

It was at this point that the sound of the little bell that signaled the opening of the door rang through the small storefront, and Wilbur froze. He turned from the display to face the two figures who had entered the shop. One was about as tall as he was, in a long blue coat. His hair was parted down the middle. The other was just slightly taller, a collared cloak hanging over his shoulders. Both of them, he noticed, had pocket watch chains hanging from their pockets. 

Neither of them seemed exactly shocked to see him there. No, it seemed more like it was exactly what they had expected, and there was a certain intent in their gaze as they looked between each other that made Wilbur think it was anything but an accident that the three of them had ended up in that empty shop together.

Had they been following him? Surly he would’ve noticed if they had, and yet he was unsure in that moment.

“Can I help you?” He asked the two of them, trying to keep his composure though there was an obvious tension to the words and a nervousness in his eyes that said he was anything but okay with the current position he had been put in. He held his pocket watch in his hand.

“Don’t worry, we’re not here to cause you any trouble, quite the opposite.” The taller of the two assured him, his voice kind in a way Wilbur had not heard in a long time, “My name is Ted, and my associate here is Daniel.”

Wilbur adjusted the watch in his hands, looking between the two of them wearily. He nodded for Ted to continue.

“You’re a traveler, yeah? You’ve been hopping between dimensions for the last month or so?” Ted asked, taking a step closer.

“Is that what you call it?” Wilbur asked, looking down at his watch, “Dimensions?” He tried the word out for himself, and something about it seemed right.

Ted nodded, “Daniel and I, we’re from the, uh, I.D.T.A., the Interdimensional Travel Association.” Ted explained quickly, and Wilbur couldn’t help but feel like it was a lie, made up on the spot even. “We track and help new interdimensional travelers.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow, “Is that so?” A bit of hope was stirring in his gut, but he knew better than to spill unneeded information to strangers prematurely.

“You must not have had that watch very long, if you didn’t even know exactly what it does.” Ted offered, flipping the center of the conversation onto Wilbur.

“I mean, I… I had it for a few months before I ever actually figured it out and, uh, used it… ” He explained, something that almost looked like guilt crossing his face briefly.

“How’d you get ahold of it without knowing what it actually did?” Daniel asked.

“I… it was given to me, by a friend.” The statement was only a bit of a lie, but a lie nonetheless. He was beginning to get increasingly uncomfortable with this line of questioning.

“And you used it despite not knowing what it actually did when it opened a portal?” Ted questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I- I did.” His answer was a bit more defensive than Ted and Daniel had expected, but it was something they could work with.

“Why would you do that? That's a pretty big risk, you must’ve had a reason for taking it.”

“Of course I had a reason! I wouldn’t just walk through a mystery portal alone without a reason.” A look of realization crossed his face as he said the last sentence, and he went quiet, “Why the hell do I need to answer all of these questions anyways?”

Ted and Daniel looked between each other, “We have to keep track of recent interdimensional travel from month to month, we just need this info for our end of month report to the head office.” Ted explained, and it was such a blatant lie that in that moment Wilbur was sure that there was no I.D.T.A., and there was certainly no head office to report back to at the end of the month. There was something else going on here and he had found himself right in the middle of it.

For the first time Wilbur realized just how much closer the two had moved to him since the beginning of the conversation, “Seems like pretty personal information for a report.” He said, the accusation he was making clear in his voice. He took a step back, but there wasn’t much room to actually move back with the display case behind him. He was effectively cornered.

“Look, we’re just trying to help.” Daniel offered.

“Well, I’m not asking for your help.” 

“You look exhausted.” Ted stated, “Surely you didn’t know exactly what you were getting into when you started traveling, maybe it’s time to just put the watch down and go home.”

Wilbur’s gaze was fiery as he looked up at Ted, “I’m not going home.” He was still holding the watch tight in his hand.

Ted’s patience was visibly running thin and he and Daniel’s lie was obviously falling apart. His eyes flicked quickly between Wilbur and the watch in his hands.

Wilbur’s gaze met Ted’s. They were at a standstill. 

Wilbur turned one of the knobs on the watch, his gaze not leaving Ted’s. “I’m done here.” He said, “Get out of my way.”

Daniel and Ted looked between each other. Daniel rolled his eyes, sighing, before nodding to Ted.

Realizing something was about to go down, Wilbur pressed the button on top of his watch, and a portal opened to his right. Ted, startled, was quick to reach for Wilbur’s watch, but Wilbur kicked him back, diving through the portal as quickly as possible before Ted could recover or Daniel could make a move to stop him. 

Almost the second he was through the portal he pressed the button again, closing the portal behind him.

He knew, in that moment, that that would not be the last time he would see Ted and Daniel, and it certainly wasn’t. They continued to track him through dimensions, and the first few times they tracked him down they approached him in a similar manner to the first time, non aggressive, trying to talk him into giving them his watch and going home, but the more times Wilbur refused and the more he started preparing for their arrival, the more it turned into a wild goose chase through dimensions. He picked up some more of the official lingo of interdimensional travel from them as time went on, the naming conventions of dimensions and such. Eventually Tommy had joined their group for god knows what reason, adding an extra element of difficulty to avoiding them.

This had been going on for the last year and a half, and, apparently, this was where that chase ended.

Wilbur fell to the ground with a thud, Tommy on top of him.

“I caught him!” He yelled over his shoulder excitedly as Ted and Daniel jogged over to catch up with him.

“Good on ya’ lad!” Daniel called. Him and Ted skidded to a stop just beside Jordan, who looked like he might burst out laughing.

“Hey, Ted, Daniel.” He greeted them, the amusement clear in his voice, “Nice kid you got there.”

Ted sighed, rolling his eyes, “Shut up, Sparkles.”

Wilbur, finally recovering from the initial shock of being unexpectedly tackled to the ground, was suddenly a lot more annoyed with the situation, “Get off of me you absolute gremlin child.” He snapped, pushing Tommy off of him and pushing himself up off the ground.

“Hey!” Tommy protested, pushing himself up as Wilbur dusted off his clothes.

It was, instead, Ted who stepped into the situation before Tommy could cause any more of a scene. He took hold of Wil’s wrist, “Hey, you're not running off again that easily.”

Wilbur yanked his wrist from Ted’s grip, “I’m not fucking running idiot,” He scoffed, holding up the broken remains of his pocket watch chain, “No watch, nowhere to run. Besides, let's be honest, if I was planning on running it would’ve happened already, and poor Daniel over there would already be stuck tracking me again.” He dropped the chain back into his pocket, gesturing towards Daniel, who looked taken aback by the statement.

Ted raised an eyebrow, looking down at Wilbur skeptically, poised to strike again if he tried to run off.

It was Tommy who broke the silence, arms crossed “And why the hell should we believe you?”

“Yeah, how do we know this isn’t some elaborate trick or something?” Daniel questioned, “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve used questionable means to get away.”

“I… there’s been an incident, something I need to talk to you about. You and I both know there’s no way in hell I would approach you if this wasn’t important.”

There was a change in the three’s demeanor, a mix of confusion and worry as they looked between each other. Jordan gave him a questioning look.

“I have a deal I’d like to make with the three of you, one that I think you’ll be a fan of.” 

They still looked unconvinced and so, Wilbur continued, 

“I… _I’m asking for your help.”_


	12. Recognition

“So, let me get this straight, you lost your watch after an accident in H-3:43:17, it got stolen by some business man-”

“Connor.” Wilbur interrupted Ted.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He brushed him off, continuing, “and then Connor ran off to some… _ random dimension, _ with his fucking intern?”

“Ty, yeah.” 

After Wilbur’s offer to Ted, Daniel, and Tommy, they had, hesitantly, agreed to hear him out. It was shortly after this that Charlie, understandably confused with the current situation, finally questioned what the hell was going on, and it was Jordan and Travis who had been left to fill Charlie in on the situation. Jordan had pulled Wilbur aside briefly, asked what exactly he was doing, what his plan was, and Wilbur had assured him, maybe a bit unfairly, that he knew what he was doing, and that he wouldn’t do anything too stupid. And so now there the four of them were, back at the house Wilbur had been left in the day before, Wil facing Ted, Daniel, and Tommy, his enemies up until this point.

Ted sighed, running a hand through his hair as he processed the information, “So, this all has happened, and… what? You want to make some deal with us? Why? Because you know you’ve got no other option? You’ve reached the end of the road?”

“I… “ He hesitated, avoiding meeting the three’s gaze, “I want to go with the three of you to hunt down Connor and Ty, help you track them down and bring them back home.” He explained, “I don’t care what you do afterwards. You can send me back to my home dimension at the end if that’s what you still want to do. I just want to make sure they get back home.”

“And why shouldn’t we just send you back home now and go after them ourselves?” Ted questioned, raising an eyebrow. This was unlike any way they’d seen him behave, and though it certainly felt genuine there was still a year and a half of distrust between his group and Wilbur and it wouldn't crumble this easily, “How do we know this isn’t just some trick for you to steal your watch back and run off again?”

“You… you could do that.” Wilbur admitted, nodding, “Send me home and go after them yourselves. That’d be fair honestly, considering our history.” Something changed on his face as I continued, a certain melancholy that couldn’t quite be explained, “I, just… Connor and Ty certainly didn’t know what they were getting into when they stepped through that portal. They have a home here, a life, friends that care about them deeply- I mean, you should’ve seen Travis when he came asking me for help. No one,” He looked up at Ted for the first time during the conversation, a certain knowledge playing in his expression, “And I mean  _ no one _ , should ever have to worry about their friends like that,” He looked away again, “Not knowing where they are, what happened to them, if they were okay, it would be just heartbreaking, wouldn’t it? And imagine being on the other end, in Connor and Ty’s position, making an impulsive decision and then realizing that you have no clue where you are and not knowing how to get back home. It’s all just so… ” He realized he was rambling and went quiet, the gazes of all three of the other’s in the room locked intensely on him, “I just… feel responsible for it, is all; The watch having been my responsibility and such. I just want to fix things, even if it means losing to you lot.” He chuckled halfheartedly at the last line, trying to lighten the mood and failing immensely.

He watched with bated breath as the three looked between each other, silent and yet communicating exactly what needed to be said.

Ted sighed in exasperation, turning back towards him, “Fine, yeah, whatever, you can come with us,”

Wilbur’s eyes lit up in surprise, he had hardly expected this to actually turn in his favor. Tommy looked about as shocked as he did, though there was a certain excitement to his demeanor at the announcement that Wilbur didn’t quite match.

“ _ But _ ,” Ted continued, “Any sign that you’ve been at all dishonest with us, or that you’re planning anything underhanded, and you get sent home immediately,”

“I can live with that.” Wilbur assured him, “That’s fine.”

“We’ll leave as soon as possible tomorrow morning, until then, while Daniel hunts down Connor and Ty, and I work on cleaning up the little mess you’ve made here, Tommy is in charge of keeping you out of trouble.”

“Pardon?” Wilbur deadpanned.

“Yeah, wait, what?” Tommy questioned, confusion clear in his own voice.

“The two of you will stay here while Daniel and I work. You’ll stay under Tommy’s watch the entire time, and if you so much as make one suspicious move, he’ll tell me.”

“The child?” He said, disbelief crossing his face, “You’re leaving me here with the child, while you all go off and do the important work?”

“Yes, exactly.”

Tommy, who, before, had looked like he might tackle Wil a second time for calling him a child, now burst out laughing.

“You can’t be serious.” Wilbur protested, “You can’t legitimately think that’s the best plan of action here.”

“Hey, don’t push your luck,” Daniel broke in, amusement clear on his face, “You're lucky you’re coming with us at all.”

*****

“Do you think we’re doing the right thing, letting him come along with us?” Ted asked as the door closed behind him and Daniel, “I’m worried this may be the beginning of something dangerous.”

It was past midday now and the sun was shining bright over the city. Voices and noise could be heard echoing from all over. There was an energy to the city, a feeling of movement and life.

“Well, I’m not saying you should put the entirety of your trust into him or anything, but,” Daniel hesitated, thinking over his next sentence, “I… don’t think there’s any more risk to this decision than there was when you decided to let me and Tommy tag along with you.”

“Those situations were both entirely different though,” Ted argued, “This… this isn’t the same as that.”

“Were they really that different? I mean, sure, you hadn’t known Tommy or I before, but you let us both come with you despite our rocky pasts, because we held a common sentiment. You must’ve known that you were assuming some risk when you first let me tag along, and yet… you just let it play out, and it was all for the better.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess it was, but, still…we just don’t know anything about him, hell, his name’s still a mystery after a year and a half of chasing him around, and now he’s just, turned away from the shallow life he’s been living since we met him because he hit one bump in the road? For some guys he’s never met, in a dimension he’s never been to?” He fiddled with the cuffs of his sleeves, “I just don’t get it.”

“I think, maybe, there’s more to him than we’ve gathered in all this time,” Daniel offered, “But we won’t really know until this all plays out. Whatever happens, I do know that we’ll be able to handle it, together, like we always do.” He reassured him with a smile.

Ted nodded hesitantly, “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” A small breeze blew through the city, “But,” He added, “I wasn’t kidding when I said I would send him home the second I see any sign of danger. He makes one wrong move and he’s gone.”

“As I’d expect,” Daniel chuckled, “Now, what’s our plan of action for the rest of the day? I know I’ve got to get to work tracking Connor and Ty, but what are you planning to do?”

“Well, I’m probably gonna go find Charlie, Travis, and” He sighed in exasperation, “ _ Jordan _ , again, see what they know, learn a bit about the guys we’re tracking down, make sure they know our plan, then, I think…” He hesitated, “I’m going to go visit an old friend here in the city.”

“You know, you still gotta tell me about that one of these days. I didn’t know you even had friends beside Tommy and I.” Daniel teased him, pulling his watch and the attached device he used for tracking travel and such out of the inner pocket of his coat.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Ted laughed, “I’m going now. Are you gonna be all good here?”

“Of course, I’m excellent at my job.”

*****

It was silent in the room besides the soft music coming from a device in Tommy’s hand that Wilbur was pretty sure he was playing some kind of game on, and the clicking of a rubix cube in Wilbur’s hand, one Tommy had given to him at some point in the few hours they had been there, presumably after noticing how bored he was sitting on the bed doing nothing. Tommy had, early on in their little stay in the house, stolen a plush recliner from somewhere in the house. He had, subsequently, parked the chair right in front of the door to the room. Something about making sure Wilbur had no easy escapes if he tried anything dumb, which Wilbur had heavily rolled his eyes in response to.

The kid had, throughout their time there, pulled a multitude of things out of the pockets of his old coat, including the rubix cube he gave to Wilbur, the small gaming system in his hands, at least three of the little metal brain teaser puzzles you can find in toy stores in certain dimensions, a kazoo, a bottle cap, a pen and notepad, and, now, a bag of candies that must’ve been from some dimension Wilbur had never visited based on the unfamiliar names.

“Dude, how big are your fucking pockets? You have so much in there.” Wilbur asked, if only to break the silence.

“I don’t know, big, I guess.” Tommy answered, shrugging, “I just kinda keep all kinds of stuff in there, don’t really clean ‘em out often.” He popped a candy in his mouth.

“That’s gotta be annoying, just like, having tons of stuff in your pockets constantly?”

He shrugged again, “It works for me.” He laughed, “I like having a bunch of stuff from different dimensions anyways, little keepsakes and such from traveling.”

Things went quiet once more, Wilbur turning his attention back to the rubix cube he had been trying to solve for the last hour and a half.

“You know,” Tommy spoke up, calling back Wil’s attention and turning to face him, “You never actually gave us your name.”

“Mhm,” Wilbur hummed in answer, not looking up from the puzzle.

“It might spark a little more trust if we, y’know, at least knew what to call you besides, like, ‘ _ the thief _ ’ or ‘ _ that asshole _ ’.” He stated, obviously annoyed with Wil’s response.

“No, I think I’m fine with the current dynamic, actually.” Wilbur replied, looking up at him smugly.

Tommy scoffed, turning back towards his game, “Asshole…” He muttered under his breath, just barely loud enough for Wilbur to hear.

It went quiet again and Wilbur was happy for the silence, regretting trying to start conversation in the first place, but just as he thought the silence would last Tommy broke it again, shoving the game back into his pocket and turning to face him.

“You know, as much as you act like an asshole - a real bastard honestly - I think there’s something more to you that Ted and Daniel don’t see.” He asserted, his hands not leaving his pockets, “I’ve always thought that.”

Wilbur raised an eyebrow skeptically, “Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah, yeah, I- ” He paused and took a deep breath and when he started again his tone was softer, less aggressive, “I just really understood the point you were making earlier, about friends, and worrying about them and stuff…” He ran a hand through his hair, a nervousness playing on his face, “I just, I get what you were saying, I know what you meant. I… I appreciated it, is what I’m getting at here.”

“Oh… ” Wilbur said in response, and he said nothing more, because he understood the point Tommy was getting at, and there was a very genuine recognition between them in that moment, one in which Wilbur was sure Tommy had understood him the moment he had started rambling earlier that day to convince them to let him accompany them, and there was a solidarity between them as they both sat in understanding.

“I used to be a President.” Tommy stated, and Wilbur kept quiet and listened, “Of a country I founded alongside three of my best friends. We had to fight our way to independence, and build our country from the ashes of that battle.” Wilbur couldn’t help but think about the fact that this kid couldn’t be older than sixteen, and had been running with the I.D.T.A for almost a year, “I don’t know when, or why, or how, but at some point, less than a month after our founding, somewhere in the world, a pocket watch was discovered in some other country, and a war started as world leaders tried to steal the watch from one another in an attempt to gain the ability to travel between dimensions.” 

“It was absolute chaos.” He continued, “Entire countries were destroyed in battle, and here we were, just barely the size of a large city, trying to rebuild after our struggle for independence. We stayed out of the conflict obviously, it would’ve been stupid not to. But, uh,” He laughed bitterly, “It really didn’t help in the end. The watch ended up in my possession a few months later after a battle between two other countries on our border. I tried desperately to keep it a secret. I only told my three most trusted men about it, my three best friends who I had founded the country alongside, and I made an announcement to the other world leaders that the watch wasn’t found on the scene of the battle.”

He sighed, “Apparently, I should’ve kept it a bit of a closer secret, because one of those three friends betrayed us. Our country was attacked by the army of the very kingdom we had won our independence from less than six months before.” He ran a hand through his hair, avoiding Wil’s gaze, “I was forced to flee during the attack, skipped dimensions, and when I came back a day later the country was all but gone, and my other two friends were nowhere to be found. I… I still don’t know what ever happened to them, if they got out okay or not, but I ended up with Ted and Daniel shortly afterwards. They… they understood what I meant when I said I couldn’t go back to my home dimension.”

It fell silent.

“I…” Wilbur attempted to say something, but a response to the story escaped him.

“It’s okay, I’m not looking for your pity or anything, it was… it was a while ago, I’m working past it. I just… I wanted you to know that I get it, I understand what you meant, and… I think Ted and Daniel both understood the sentiment at least.”

Wil nodded, “Thanks.” He said quietly, not sure what else to say.

The silence that fell between them now was comfortable, not like the tense quiet of the last few hours. The sun was beginning to fall in the sky now, and Wilbur couldn’t help but look out over the city as the warm orange light of the late afternoon bounced off the buildings outside. He was almost sure in that moment that even if he were to do anything suspicious, Tommy wouldn’t have told Ted and Daniel.

Tommy was digging through his pockets again, and, as his hand brushed over something, a look of realization dawned on his face. “Here, I’ve got something for you actually.” He broke the silence again, pulling something out of his pocket that looked like a small square of paper and holding it out towards him.

Wilbur leaned forward to take it, a bit confused, but as he looked down at it in his hands, his eyes went wide in disbelief, “Where did you get this?” He all but demanded, looking up at Tommy again. His hands were trembling.

“You dropped it one time, when we were chasing you. It was a while ago, a few months maybe, back in… S-6:10:25 I believe.” Tommy answered softly, “I… thought you might want it back. I’ve had it with me all this time. but there was never a good opportunity to give it back until now.”

Wilbur looked down at the picture in his hands, one he hadn’t seen in a long time, and that he thought he would never see again. The edges were worn and torn in a few spots. It had been taken almost two years before, the morning before the night everything had gone wrong, before he had woken up to an empty base the next morning, before he had found the watch. 

“I…” He started, but he didn’t know what to say, and so, wiping a tear from his eye, he just said, “Thank you.” 

And Tommy simply nodded in response, and silence fell over them once more.

It was a few hours later that Tommy suggested they go to bed, since they would be traveling the next day. Daniel had checked in on them at some point briefly before that, told them he’d found the right dimension and that they’d be good to go in the morning. Now, it was dark in the room other than the moonlight outside, Tommy was laid in his recliner, looking out the window at the city, and Wilbur was crawling back into bed after taking off his vest and cravat.

He looked out the window as well as he made himself comfortable. It was a clear, starry night, and the city had gone quiet.

“Wilbur.”

“What?” Tommy questioned, turning towards him. 

“My name, it’s Wilbur, if you really wanted to know.” He said quietly, his gaze not leaving the window as he did.

Tommy nodded, a small smile on his face, “Well,  _ Wilbur _ , I look forward to traveling with you tomorrow.”

Wilbur fell asleep that night having, in a way, come to terms with the deal he’d made that day with Ted, and the decision it had entailed. He felt a bit more understood, the picture of him and Techno from two years ago not having left his hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A 3000 word chapter? From me? It's more likely than you may think! Take it as an apology for the screw up with Chapter 9


	13. A Voice in the Snow

It was sunset when a hesitant knock sounded on the door of Carson office. He was getting ready to head home, organizing the pile of papers on his desk, a mix of letters from friends in the city and other more official documents; Things like requests for help with projects, business offers, inquiries about plots of land, questions about civil disputes, and the likes.

“Come on in.” He called, transferring a stack of letters from Schlatt - who was at the moment off on a business trip in some far off city - into the filing cabinet to the right of his desk, leaving a reminder attached to them that he needed to send a response within the next few days.

There was a moment of quiet before the door creaked open, revealing on the other side a figure who he had not seen in a long time.

He smiled, “Hey Ted.” He greeted him, sitting back down in his chair, “It’s been awhile.”

Ted couldn’t help but smile back, “You don’t seem very shocked to see me.” He said, “Even after almost 3 years.”

“It has been that long, hasn’t it?” Carson chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, “Eh, well, Charlie told me you were in town, so I expected you’d show up eventually.”

Ted rolled his eyes halfheartedly, leaning against the door frame, “Of course he did.”

“He, uh, told me a lot of things, actually.” Carson admitted, leaning back in his chair, “I guess we have some stuff to talk about, huh?”

Ted nodded, “Yeah, I’m afraid that I haven’t exactly returned to the city for any good reason.”

“Come on, have a seat,” Carson gestured to the chair across from him on the other side of the desk, “You can close the door behind you if you’d like.”

Ted did just that, taking in the office as he made himself comfortable in the chair across from Carson. The office was on the top floor of a tall building in the middle of the city, one that had not been around when he had last been there. The back wall behind Carson was entirely made of glass, looking out over the rest of the city. There were bookshelves, filing cabinets, and keepsakes of different events in the city all around the room. A picture of a bunch of the city's residents was sitting on Carson’s desk. The only light on in the room at the moment was a soft floor lamp besides the desk, meaning that most of the room was lit by the soft, warm light of the sunset out the window.

The building was one that Charlie and Carson had built together. There was no real government in the city, but by virtue of having founded it, Carson had ended up basically in charge of community business, with Charlie helping him out with whatever he could. The building housed their offices, storage for community resources, and places for discussing and planning community events. If you lived in the city and you needed help with something, this was where you came.

“So, Connor and Ty, huh?” Carson said.

“Yeah.” Ted sighed, “Sorry to have to visit under such unfortunate circumstances.”

“Oh, it’s not your fault at all, hell, it wasn’t the other guys fault either, Connor’s just… like that, makes bad decisions impulsively sometimes, and Ty’s a good kid, smart, but he’s as loyal as can be to Connor and Schlatt, there’s no way he wouldn’t have gone with.” He sighed, “I’m worried about them of course, but I trust whatever plan you have.”

“I’ve got my friend Daniel tracking down which dimension they traveled to, so we should be able to head out after them tomorrow.” Ted assured him, “If everything goes to plan we might be able to bring them back as early as tomorrow afternoon.”

“And the guy whose watch Connor took?” Carson asked, glancing back out the window behind him.

“He’s coming with us to help, so he shouldn’t cause anymore trouble for you all.”

Carson nodded, turning back to face Ted, “You know, it’s weird that this has happened twice now.” 

“What?”

“Not the stolen pocket watch and the disappearances and such,” He clarified, “but, like, this is the second time now that an injured interdimensional traveler has stumbled into my care. I just think it’s kind of a funny coincidence.”

Ted rolled his eyes, “I assume Jordan didn’t stumble into the city in the same manner then if the count’s only at two?”

Carson laughed, “Nah, he just kinda showed up one day and ended up sticking around. I don’t think he even realized that I knew he was an interdimensional traveler when he showed up, he still pretends that he’s visiting friends in another city any time he travels to a different dimension.”

"I guess his whole air of secrecy is gone now, huh?" Ted chuckled.

"Oh yeah, definitely, now that Charlie figured it out there’s no way the entire city doesn't know by the end of the week."

"Serves him right." Ted joked, "You know, I can't even do anything about him traveling around doing whatever he wants cause he has fucking gods back in his home dimension."

"Is that so?" Carson asked, amusement clear on his face.

"Yeah, like, big scary gods who literally threatened Daniel and I when we tried to take his watch. Totally unfair." He leaned back in the chair, his arms crossed.

"Well, I'll do my best to make sure he stays out of trouble, but I can't make any promises if he's got "big scary gods" on his side." Carson looked like he was one word away from bursting out laughing.

"Come on, I'm being serious." Ted stated defensively, "One of them legitimately threw a fireball at us, like, out of nowhere! I'm not dealing with that shit, okay?" He couldn’t help but laugh himself as he spoke, the ridiculousness of his own words dawning on him.

And they both broke down in laughing fits across the table from each other.

"God, my life is fucking ridiculous, huh?" He said, leaning back in the chair once more.

"You know, you should really come around and visit more often." Carson offered, "I'd love to hear more stories from your travels, and you wouldn't have to keep the whole interdimensional travel thing a secret now."

"You know I'd love to, Carson, but…"

"But you don't want to put anyone in the city in danger?" Carson’s voice was soft, it was a line he'd heard before, "You're arguments never change Ted."

Ted sighed, "No, not when they're good arguments." He avoided Carson’s gaze, his eyes instead lingering on a poster on the wall for a talent show two years before.

Carson sighed as well, leaning back in his chair, "I get it, I do, and I appreciate the sentiment. Just, maybe make sure your next visit isn't three years from now, okay?"

Ted nodded, chuckling halfheartedly, "Yeah, yeah, I suppose I could do a bit better than three years this time."

"I'll be holding you to that." Carson teased, "If you're gone for that long again I might have to take Jordan’s watch myself to come hunt you down."

"Oh god, please don't." Ted laughed, standing from the desk chair.

"I won't, I won't." Carson reassured him halfheartedly, "Just, come back around sometime, okay? We have a lot of catching up to do."

"And besides that," He added, his tone lighthearted, "I've gotta meet your travel buddy, Daniel, one of these days, make sure you're not traveling around with some hooligan." He walked around the table towards Ted.

"Oh, you don’t have to worry about Daniel." Ted chuckled, "Tommy on the other hand… well let's just say he may be edging on the criteria of hooligan."

"Oh? So there's two then? You've replaced me as your best friend that fast?" Carson teased, punching him in the arm.

"Oh, come on, you know I could never replace you." Ted scoffed jokingly

"Yeah, I know, I know, I'm too amazing to be replaced." He laughed, pulling Ted into a hug.

And it was the first proper hug Ted had been given in a long time.

"Now," Carson said, pulling back from the hug a few seconds later, "You stay safe out there, okay?"

"I'll do my best." Ted said, a smile on his face, "And hopefully I'll have Connor and Ty back home before the end of the week."

"Good, because I'd hate to see Schlatt's reaction if he came back from his trip and they were still gone." Carson smiled back.

*****

For a second day in a row Wilbur was woken up in the early hours of the morning by someone who was practically a stranger. He was starting to get tired of that.

“Okay, but do we really have to leave  _ this _ early?”

“Ah, come on Wilbur, get excited, we’re about to get to explore a new dimension.” Tommy said, wrapping an arm around Wilbur’s shoulders as they walked out the door of the old base they had spent the night in.

“Yeah  _ Wilbur _ ,” Ted said his name in a way that almost felt like he was being mocked, and suddenly Wil was having regrets about having let Tommy tell the others his name, “Now you get to see what it was like for us chasing you around for the last year and a half.”

“You didn’t have to do that, y’know? You could’ve just… not.” Wilbur retorted in return, “It’s really much more simple not to chase someone you don’t know through dimensions for a year and half than to do it.”

“Yeah, well sometimes the simpler solution is the worse one.” Ted said, pulling a silver pocket watch from his left pocket.

Wilbur scoffed, rolling his eyes, his hands rested in his own pockets.

“Which dimension was it again, Daniel?” Ted questioned, turning to Daniel, who was checking some information on the holographic screens floating in front of him.

“It’s E-9:1:53.” Daniel told him as the screens disappeared, “We don’t have any notes on it so I’m assuming we’ve never been before.” He tucked a watch and some device Wilbur didn’t recognize or understand into the inside pocket of his coat.

“How about you Wilbur, you ever been there?” Tommy asked.

Wilbur shook his head, “Not that I can ever remember.”

“Well then, guess we’re going in blind.” Ted said, turning the knobs on the side of his watch carefully.

As he did, a voice echoed from down the street, “Come on, I want to get there before they leave!” It was Charlie's voice.

He rounded the corner dragging Travis and Carson behind him as he walked. His eyes lit up as he spotted them and he waved. 

Wilbur waved back, and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at the sight, “I think we’ve got a farewell party coming our way.”

“It would seem so.” Daniel chuckled, waving as well.

“You all weren’t gonna leave without saying goodbye, were you?” Charlie asked as he reached the group.

“Well, that’s kinda Ted’s whole thing.” Carson teased, as Ted rolled his eyes halfheartedly, a genuine smile making its way onto his face.

“Oh wow, he can smile, it’s a miracle.” Wilbur said jokingly, earning a small glare from Ted, but otherwise going unchallenged.

“We were just getting ready to go, yeah, but it’s cool that you all came to see us off.” Ted answered, looking up from the watch in his hands.

“Oh, we’re not here to see you off, we’re coming with.” Charlie stated excitedly, earning a chorus of ‘What?’s invoking varying levels of confusion and concern.

“Charlie, that’s not what you told me we were coming over here for.” Carson said, seeming shocked by the proposal.

“Yeah, there’s no way that's happening.” Ted stated, a certain level of authority in his tone that said there was no room for argument.

“What? But Connor and Ty are our friends, we can’t just not help find them.” He said, looking between Carson and Ted, “Come on, Travis, back me up here.” He said turning towards a nervous Travis hopefully.

Tommy, Daniel, and Wilbur exchanged worried looks.

Travis looked between all of them hesitantly, before his gaze landed back on Charlie “I… I know what you’re saying, but I’m really not sure that’s a good idea Charlie… ” 

“Travis!” Charlie exclaimed, a look of betrayal crossing his face.

“Look, Charlie,” Ted said, approaching him and putting a hand on his shoulder, “I understand why you want to come, but interdimensional travel can be dangerous, especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Maybe if we knew about the dimension we’re traveling to you could come…” The last statement was a lie, he wouldn’t have let them come with even if he had known anything about the dimension they were traveling to, “But it simply isn’t a safe option now.”

“The last thing we need is anyone else going missing.” Carson told him, “And people need us here in the city, Charlie.”

“But…” 

“We should have your friends back home before the end of the week if everything goes to plan, there’s no need to worry.” Ted reassured him, stepping back.

“It’s all in good hands.” Carson added.

There was a tense moment of silence as Charlie looked between Carson and Ted, conflict and an emotion akin to defiance shining in his eyes. He and Travis shared a look.

“Okay, fine,” He sighed, throwing his hands up in defeat, “but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.”

The relief of everyone in the vicinity was tangible as he walked over to stand beside Travis, his arms crossed.

And so, goodbyes were said, and they were off, walking through a blue-green edged portal into E-9:1:53. 

It was cold, to say the least. As far as they could see in any direction there was sparkling white snow, undisturbed by all but what looked like the footprints of a rabbit. They followed the trail, figuring that they might lead somewhere that wasn’t just endless white with no landmarks to guide them. It was still early in the morning and the sun still hung low in the sky in front of them, casting their shadows far across the snow behind them. Dark clouds hung higher in the sky, raining down soft sprinkles of snow on them as they walked. 

Tommy was chatting eagerly with Wilbur, telling him about other dimensions he had traveled to with Ted and Daniel, and Wilbur listened. Daniel and Ted spoke in quiet voices besides them, stopping to add onto Tommy’s stories every once in a while. It seemed, as they walked, that Ted and Daniel had become a bit less tense about Wilbur’s presence watching him speak with Tommy. 

“Have you ever been to A-4:7:14?” Wilbur asked, his voice a bit shaky from the cold.

“I don’t believe I have.” Tommy said, shaking his head.

“It’s incredible. It’s basically a giant endless ocean, sprinkled with tiny islands. Most of the people live in underwater bases and cities. The sea life there is so diverse, there are tiny fish, and huge whales, and creatures I'd never heard of. It's nothing like anything I’d ever seen before, we never really had any big oceans back where I came from, let alone anything like that. You really ought to visit some day if you have the chance, it’s quite the experience.”

They continued talking, and Daniel gave Ted a knowing look.

“At the rate they're getting along, we might have to keep him.” He joked, “I don’t know if Tommy would let us get rid of him.”

Ted rolled his eyes, “If he were to actually keep traveling with us after this, it’d be over my dead body.”

“Ah, come on, he doesn’t seem quite as bad as we thought he was all this time,” Daniel nudged him in the side, “Maybe we just need to take a page from Tommy’s book and actually make an effort to get to know him.”

Ted looked over towards Wilbur and Tommy as they laughed about something or another, “Maybe you have a point.” He sighed, a small smile on his face, “But,” He turned back to Daniel, “One day of peaceful travel doesn’t make up for a year and a half of conflict. I still don’t know if I trust that he has good intentions in coming along with us.”

They continued walking, not noticing the sound of snow crunching underneath another pair of footsteps some ways behind them.

As a breeze blew over them, Wilbur swore he heard his name, carried by the wind, the voice unsure, but unmistakably familiar. He froze, eyes wide at the sound.

Tommy stopped beside him, raising an eyebrow, “You okay dude?” He hadn't heard it.

Daniel and Ted too stopped at Tommy’s question, looking towards him with similar confusion.

And then the voice came again, louder, less unsure, “Wilbur?” It called, and Wilbur whipped around to face the source, a figure, dusted in snow, no less than ten feet behind them, in a familiar red coat, with a gold sword hanging at his waist.

“Techno!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have no idea how long I've had to wait to write this chapter :')


	14. Two Years In Passing

It had been a long time since Techno had arrived in E-9:1:53. He had lost track of the days at some point, the world wasn’t exactly one that was particularly friendly to timekeeping considering about half the year was spent without sunlight, but he reckoned it would’ve been close to about two years since then.

He had, at the time, lived in another world, one of floating islands sprawling out over a seemingly endless sky, where allies were hard to find and the community thrived off of infighting. Everyone had their own little clans and they lived on their own islands, venturing out into the world only for community events and for the occasional crime spree on a neighbor’s island. It was strange, the community dynamic. Despite the constant fighting, stealing, competition for resources, the space between all of them, there was a community center, and no fighting took place within it. It was a vast island, filled with open air markets, shops, restaurants, auction houses, places to hold competitions and gather resources; And you’d find in these places groups who had been at each others' throats an hour before chatting calmly, browsing the market stalls, eating together and discussing news they’d heard from other ‘enemies’. The second they left the community center however, they were foes once more, and it’d be a miracle if you saw them on the same island again and they weren’t embroiled in some conflict or another.

Techno and Wilbur were a dynamic duo, known well throughout the community. They lived on a series of small islands, all tied together with bridges Wilbur had built for them. Techno was an amazing fighter, his signature gold sword one that Wilbur had made him years before. It was enchanted as much as a sword possibly could be, and Techno handled it beautifully. Wilbur was better with stealth than with fighting. He was known for his skill with his elytra as well as the potions that he brewed and stock piled on their island, and, occasionally, sold in a stall in the market. Together they went basically unchallenged. It was rare that someone tried to raid their island, but when they did they hardly ever left with whatever they came to steal, but it was just as rare that Wilbur and Techno didn’t get away with whatever they wanted when they went to rob one of their neighbors.

In the months leading up to his disappearance Techno had been embroiled in a competition with one of their neighbors. To their south was a group much larger than Wilbur and Techno’s duo, led by a man known by the name Squid Kid. Squid had showed up seemingly out of nowhere earlier that year and quickly formed a large, close knit clan. He had shot to the top of the community leader board for the amount of potatoes farmed, and Techno had decided to challenge him after hearing him brag about his farm.

On the day before the night everything had gone wrong, Techno and Wilbur had gone to Squid’s base, knowing he would be gone that day along with most of his team for a community event. Techno wanted to get a better look at his farm to see if there were any particular advantages he might be able to take, and, of course, it wouldn’t hurt to maybe look through their chests a bit if given the chance.

So that’s how they had spent the majority of their day, sneaking through Squid’s base, investigating his potato farm, rummaging through chests, avoiding any of his teammates who had stayed home for the day. At some point, Techno had quietly picked up a pocket watch from an otherwise empty chest at the back of some storage room. It had seemed like quite an insignificant decision at the time, he had seen it and thought he might give it to Wilbur, the kind of vintage look of it going along with his style and all, but, in retrospect, taking the watch from that chest may have been one of the biggest decisions he had made in his life.

When they had gotten home that afternoon - having eventually been chased out of Squid’s base by one of the group members that hadn’t gone off to the community center - Techno had gone back to his potato farm, and he had worked there the rest of the afternoon to use the information he had gained from their infiltration of Squid’s base to make improvements. It was dark out by the time he walked into he and Wilbur’s base again. Wilbur was fast asleep in a pile of blankets and pillows besides a row of brewing stands filled with various potions.

Techno sat down in his own pile of bedding on the other side of the room, working on cleaning and polishing his sword, which he did every night before bed. He eventually had pulled the watch out of his pocket and noticed the hands were not moving and the time it was set to was far from the actual time, almost three hours behind in fact. He had messed around with it until he figured out what knobs made which hands turn and such. He had discovered at some point or another that the front face of the clock, engraved with letters, was movable. And when he finally set the time right, and pressed the button he thought would start the watch, 

Well… 

He hadn’t even noticed when he dropped the watch before stepping through the portal, that’s how in awe he was at what he was seeing, and by the time he did realize it was far too late, the portal had already closed behind him, leaving him essentially stranded in what had seemed like an endless snowy wasteland.

He had been in a state of shock when he first realized what exactly he had just done, still not properly comprehending the extent of the situation, not even really understanding what exactly had just happened. Eventually his survival instincts had kicked in and he had gone wandering into the cold in search of some form of shelter, sword in hand. It was still night, and the snowy expanse - far larger than any islands back home - was home to a variety of monsters. 

He eventually found a forest, a small cave carved into the side of a hill became his home for the night, wrapped up in the red and yellow coat he had had for as long as he could remember.

He didn’t sleep. His mind still trying to comprehend what exactly the portal he had opened was, where it had taken him, how he would get home. He thought about Wilbur, who would wake up in an empty base the next morning. What would he think? Would he make the same mistake he had with the watch? End up similarly stranded? It was an unpleasant train of thought.

When the sun rose in the sky in the morning Techno emerged from the cave solemnly. He explored the area around his cave cautiously. He was quick to collect some berries he found, somehow still alive despite the fact that the leaves of the bush were frozen and half buried in the snow. He found some gravel near the side of a frozen lake nearby, and there was iron in his cave, so he picked out some flint and set about collecting wood for a fire. He spotted the footprints of rabbits and foxes and other creatures as he worked. The land was very much alive despite its original appearance when he had arrived the night before.

He continued on like this for a few days, making a makeshift home out of the cave, collecting wood and coal to keep his fire going, surviving off of berries and a few apples he had found growing somewhere near the edge of the forest. He had tried tracking some of the rabbits that lived in the forest, but had been altogether unsuccessful in doing so. He kept himself busy, tried not to think about what might be happening back home. He stayed on edge, knowing the monsters of the world could possibly pose a threat to him if he were to be confronted by them alone.

That’s why, when, one morning, while eating berries and sharpening his sword besides the fire, he heard footsteps on the snow in the woods nearby, he was quick to move to a more defensive position, his back to the cave behind him, his sword drawn and pointed at the treeline surrounding him. He spotted something green moving between the white of the snow. A creeper maybe? This might be bad. He had no armor.

And then, a figure stepped into his line of sight. A shorter man, dressed in a green cloak lined with fur, his messy blond hair sticking out from under a green and white hat. Most notable about him were the wings on his back, nothing like the bug like elytra wings he had used occasionally back home with Wilbur. They were huge, and grey, like the wings of a bird, folded behind his back. They were no elytra, that was certain.

The man seemed to immediately realize Techno was on edge, he put up his hands to show that he was holding no weapons, though there was a crossbow hanging at his waist. His eyes were kind in a way Techno wasn’t used to. 

“I come in peace.” He said, his tone almost humorous.

“And your business here?” Techno said, his voice a bit rough since he hadn’t used it in multiple days.

“I live in a camp nearby.” The stranger stated, his voice softer than before, not moving to lower his hands, “I saw the smoke from your fire while I was out hunting, thought I might come check it out since it’s unusual for anyone to just be wandering around these parts.”

There were a few moments where Techno just stared him up and down in an attempt to judge if he was being genuine. He lowered the sword, but didn’t put it away, sitting back down to resume sharpening it.

“Mind if I sit with you?” The stranger asked.

Techno glanced up at him again, eyes narrowed, “Fine, go ahead.” He said after a second of tense silence, the lack of trust was clear in his voice.

The man did just that, sitting down in the snow across the fire from him, looking over his cave-turned-home and the stash of berries he was living off of, “Are you living here?” He questioned.

Techno nodded without looking up, “Have been for a few days.” 

“It… must be a bit cold in there.”

Techno shrugged, “It’s fine.”

“Are you just surviving off of those berries?”

“And some apples.” Techno added, getting a bit annoyed with the line of questioning. In his experience, if a stranger was asking you about the resources at your disposal, it was never for a friendly reason, “It’s fine, really.”

“And you’re just… out here by yourself?”

Techno finally looked up at him again, his annoyance clear on his face, “Look, if you’re just here to figure out how much of a threat I am to your ‘camp’ or if I’ve got any resources worth pillaging or whatever, you can get back up and walk back home because today is not the day I’m dealing with this.”

The man seemed shocked by the accusation, blinking a few times as he processed the words, “I… that wasn’t my intention at all, I’m not that type of person, I can assure you.”

“And your intentions in this little interrogation session were then?”

“You just… seem a little tired, is all, and tense. Surviving out here all alone is hard.” He explained, “In my experience, usually if someone’s living alone in a cave in the middle of the woods it’s not a decision they’ve made of their own volition.”

Techno looked back down at his sword.

“You said you’ve only been here a few days. Do you mind if I ask where you were before this?” The man asked softly, a certain level of concern edging his tone.

Techno hesitated, “It’s not important.” He said, though it pained him to say, “What’s important is that I’m here now.”

The man nodded, seemingly understanding that it wasn’t a topic to push, “Well, I know you said you’re fine out here in your little cave, but, uh, if you ever get tired of it, I run a camp less than a mile north of here,” He pointed back over his shoulder into the depths of the woods, “We take in anyone who wants to join.” His offer was clear, “You’d have a tent, and things like hunting, farming, collecting firewood, are all community contributions, so you’d be able to help around however you want without worrying about every responsibility.” 

“The majority of the people there are a lot less nosy than me.” He joked halfheartedly, “So you probably wouldn’t have to answer any other unwanted questions.”

Techno thought about it for a moment. It was, admittedly, a good offer, and it seemed to come from a place of genuine kindness. “I… might be interested in a look at that camp.” He said hesitantly, looking up at the stranger.

The man stood up, “Well, there’s still plenty of time left in the day,” He held his hand out to Techno. He smiled as Techno took his hand, and pulled him up from the ground, “I’m Phil, by the way.”

“Techno.” He told him.

Techno was settled into a tent in the camp by the end of the night. It was larger than he thought it would be, about the size of one of the larger market stalls back home, and he had been provided with proper bedding and a warm meal, neither of which he had had before.

He had lived in that tent for the last two years, made it his own. He grew closer with Phil, who taught him how to track animals in the snow, how to properly use a crossbow, and how to get through the snow to be able to plant crops. He brought his potato farming skills from back home to use, building up the previously small farms of the camp into something they could be proud of, and taught the other inhabitants of the camp proper self defense to help protect themselves against the mobs that stalked the forest late at night. 

He had become Phil’s right hand man, and though it was a good distraction, it didn’t stop him from thinking about home, worrying about Wilbur and the watch that had sent him here. Phil had always been able to tell when something was on his mind, and eventually Techno had shared with him his story. He had expected not to be believed, it was a ridiculous story after all. A portal to another world from a pocket watch? Techno wouldn’t have believed it either if he hadn’t experienced it, but Phil had made the effort to understand it, and to understand his worries too. When he was nervous, Phil was the one who reassured him. When he missed home, and missed Wilbur, Phil was the one who distracted him and gave him hope.

He had grown quieter about it over time, settling into his new life, but it never quite left the back of his mind that something huge was missing from his life, and that one day he might come to find it, or be found by it again.

The morning he saw Wilbur again he was out alone, tracking a rabbit, and was confused when the tracks of the rabbit converged with four pairs of footprints, which seemed to come from no particular direction, but just to appear in the snow. He followed them hesitantly. No other hunters had been sent out in his direction that morning, certainly not any four person party at that. Whoever these four were, they weren’t from the camp.

When he’d finally spotted them on the horizon he was confused. None of them were properly dressed for the weather, and none of them were armed that he could see, so if they too were following the rabbit like he suspected, he’d have been shocked to learn it was to hunt it. He approached them quietly, and he realized, as he got closer, that he recognized the outfits of one of the figures. Certainly it couldn’t be… 

“Wilbur?” He said under his breath, unsure, as a breeze blew by him.

And the figure froze, the other three beside him turning to look at him, and Techno was sure.

“Wilbur?” He called, in absolute awe.

Wilbur turned to face him, his eyes widening when they met each other's gaze.

“Techno!” He exclaimed, a level of pure surprise and disbelief lacing his tone that Techno had never heard.

Within seconds Wilbur’s arms were wrapped around him in a hug, and he was almost convinced that he would never let go.

“I can’t believe it’s really you!” Wilbur said, his face buried in the fur of Techno’s coat.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” Techno said, hugging him back, “It’s been… “

“Just about two years.” Wilbur said. 

“Two years…” He repeated quietly, almost as if in disbelief that it had really been so long.

Wilbur was shaking, and Techno was unsure of whether or not it was because of the cold or the shock.

“I’m glad you’re okay, I was worried about you,” Techno stated.

Wilbur pulled back to look at Techno, though not releasing him from the hug, “Me? You’re the one who went missing in another dimension!” He exclaimed, laughing. There were tears in his eyes.

“Yeah, but, I left you all alone back home, and after that raid, and with the watch still there…”

“Oh my god, shut up.” Wilbur said playfully, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“How did you even get here?” 

“I’ve been hopping through dimensions…” Wilbur said, glancing back behind him at the I.D.T.A., who seemed confused, well, besides Tommy, “I just kinda hoped I would get the right one eventually.” He laughed, looking back to Techno and running a hand through his hair.

“Wilbur, that might be the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.” Techno deadpanned, eyes wide, not bothering to ask who the three strangers were.

“Okay, well you walked through a portal to another dimension without knowing what it was and didn’t even take the watch with you.” Wilbur retorted, punching his arm playfully, “And my method got me here! Eventually…”

“Touche.” Techno pulled him back into another hug, “It’s really good to see you again, Wil.”

“Yeah, you too.” Wilbur chuckled, “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

“Okay, I hate to interrupt whatever… this is,” Ted said, approaching them, “but, can someone please explain what exactly is going on here?”

“Oh, right,” Wilbur laughed, pulling away from the hug, “Ted, Daniel, Tommy, this is Techno.” He said, a smile on his face the likes of which the three had never seen on him before, “He’s the reason I’ve been hopping dimensions for the last year and half.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, it's been awhile! I was doing some stuff, and also taking a bit of a break over the holidays, but we have returned, and with an extra long chapter. The next few chapters will probably all be similarly long so look forward to that :]
> 
> While we're here, I do want to address something real quick. SO, the stuff that came out about CallMeCarson the other week, huh? I'm not gonna talk too much about it, because it's horrible and not fun to talk about, but I did want to say that while I can't exactly go back and change the fact that he was included in the story before the information about what he did came out, I will be choosing not to include him in the future, even if that means working around certain events I had planned in the story in the future. And that's that on all the dreary stuff.
> 
> Moving on, I was wondering if there would be any interest from you guys in a discord server for the story/AU, just to like hang out, and to talk about the story, and to give you guys a more direct line to talk to me about the story and such. If that is something you'd like be sure to let me know :)
> 
> Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, I'm done talking, hopefully it won't be too long to the next chapter, see you then o/


	15. Camp Conversations

“I can’t believe we spent a year and a half chasing around some guy who was just looking for his missing friend…” Daniel said quietly, his gaze flicking between Ted beside him and Wilbur, Techno, and Tommy a few feet ahead of them as they tread through the snow into the woods.

“Okay, in our defense, we didn’t know that’s why he was traveling,” Ted said back, equally quiet, “He never said anything, all we knew was that he was traveling around stealing things from other dimensions. If we had known why he was doing that we definitely would’ve gone about things differently.”

“Well, we did lie to him the first time we met him… and try to take his watch… and then proceeded to follow him through dimensions… so… it  _ might’ve _ been our fault if we didn’t exactly have any open, honest conversations about why he was traveling, Ted.”

“Okay, okay, you have a point, I will admit,” Ted sighed,” but… uh… it’s fine now, right? This is fine? I mean, it took a while, but, like, we got there, he’s got his friend back, and we’re not fighting anymore, and they get to go back to their home dimension after we find Connor and Ty, so…” 

“I guess, but… if we had approached it differently we may have been able to do something earlier instead of just… chasing him around for a year and a half.” Daniel crossed his arm, “I mean, the whole point of what we’re doing is to help people, and we’ve officially majorly failed in that department here.”

“Let’s… let’s not dwell on the past for now. We need to focus on finding Connor and Ty for now, and… we can talk about it later.”

Techno and Wilbur spoke closely a few feet ahead of them, Tommy butting into their conversation on occasion. Wilbur and Techno had worked together to briefly explain to Ted, Daniel, and Tommy the events that had led to Techno going missing and Wilbur running through dimensions looking for him. Ted had never seen two people more excited to see each other, happy just to hold a conversation with one another. They had also, briefly, explained to Techno, why they had ended up in E-9:1:53 in the first place.

Techno was, now, leading them back to the camp he called home. It was, as they had been told, somewhere in the woods nearby, and Techno had suggested that if they asked Phil, who was apparently in charge of the camp, about Connor and Ty, he may know something. 

As they got further into the trees they started to notice signs of life; A defined path between the trees, lanterns hanging from tree branches, footsteps in the snow, the smell of smoke from fires. As they made their way over a small hill it came into view below them, a sea of tents spread over a vast clearing in the woods. There were fields of crops, and pens of animals like sheep and cattle, and fires burning in the center of circles of tents, stacks of firewood and building material stashed under covers to shield them from the elements. There were people milling about down below, in the fields, around the fires, in and out of tents, all of whom had, as all of the newcomers to the world were quick to note, wings, like those of a bird.

“When you said camp I wasn’t quite imagining something this big.” Wilbur laughed as they walked down the hill towards the camp entrance.

“I guess it is kinda outgrowing the title, huh?” Techno chuckled, “I’ve been telling Phil we oughta start building actual buildings, make, like, a town, since things have expanded so much.”

“Is that what all the materials laying around are for?” Daniel questioned, looking around as they walked through an archway into the camp.

“Yeah, we’ve been collecting some stuff, planning everything out.” As they walked people greeted Techno, not seeming phased by the group of strangers accompanying him, and he waved back casually.

“Are we gonna talk about the fact that everyone here has wings or am I just losing my fucking mind?” Tommy questioned, barely trying to hide the fact that he was very much staring at the different people in the camp.

“Tommy, don’t be rude.” Ted said, nudging him in the side.

Techno laughed, “No, no, he’s fine, I had a pretty similar reaction when I first got here. I think that’s just kinda how everyone is here, if anything, they thought it was weird that I didn’t have wings when I got here.”

As they walked, Techno pointed out different things around the camp; Fields of crops he had created or expanded, horses with names Wilbur was sure Techno had come up with, tents that housed people none of the rest of them had ever met. He told small stories as they went, of the countless times he had completely lost track of time while tending to crops and Phil - who Wilbur was becoming increasingly interested in meeting - had to come out looking for him in the middle of the night to drag him to bed, and of the trouble that came along with all of the animals in the camp, and of the difficulty he had hunting in his first few months in the world. The stories were very obviously being told to Wilbur more so than the rest of them, though he did answer any questions the others had, and they didn’t seem to mind much.

They reached a circle of tents surrounding a fire and Techno stopped them, “Here, you guys wait here for a moment,” He approached one of the tents and stuck his head through the entrance, “Hey Phil,” He dragged out the name, the smile on his face clear in his voice.

Someone inside the tent chuckled, “What’d you do?” An unfamiliar voice said.

“What?” Techno laughed, “What makes you think I did something?

“Techno, you’ve got that look on your face you get when you’ve done something.”

“No, no, that’s a different look. Anyways, I haven’t done anything, I’ve got something to show you though.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, there’s some people here you should meet, come on.” He backed out of the tent, waiting for the person in the tent, presumably Phil, to follow him.

A man emerged from the tent, a bit shorter than Techno, messy blond hair sticking out from under the striped hat on his head, grey wings tucked behind his back.

“Look who I found out in the plains.” Techno gestured to Wilbur a few feet away.

Phil’s gaze briefly swept over the I.D.T.A before following Techno’s lead to Wilbur. He looked him up and down, for a moment seeming confused before a look of realization crossed his face. He turned to Techno.

“Is this…”

Techno nodded, smiling, “Wilbur, yeah.”

Phil’s face lit up, “Oh!” He exclaimed, looking between Wilbur and Techno, “Well isn’t this exciting.”

Wilbur stepped forward, holding out his hand for a handshake, “Phil, I presume?”

Phil, to Wil’s surprise, pulled him into a hug, “There’s really no need for the formalities.” He said, pulling back a second later, “Techno speaks highly of you,” He said in a softer voice, “And any friend of his is a friend of mine. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Wilbur blinked, taking a moment to process the interaction, “It’s, uh, nice to meet you too.” He said hesitantly, not quite sure how else to respond.

Phil patted his shoulder before taking a step back and turning to the I.D.T.A., “And these lot are…” 

“That’s Ted, Daniel, and Tommy,” Techno said, pointing each of them out to Phil before Wilbur could, “They're Wil’s, uh… friends?” It was certainly more of a question than an answer.

Wil tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, “Uh… yeah, we’ll go with that, sure.” It was easier than explaining the actual history between them, and, as much as he wouldn’t admit it, his dislike of the three was fading more with time. He tried to ignore the smug look Tommy was giving him.

Techno shrugged, “They’re interdimensional travelers like Wil, at the least.”

Phil raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask any follow up questions, “Well, it’s nice to meet you three as well.” He looked between Wilbur and the I.D.T.A., “So, How’d you guys get here anyways? I imagine there’s some reason besides coincidence that you all showed up all of a sudden.”

Ted stepped forward, “Actually, we came here looking for some people. Two guys who went missing from their home dimension after one of them stole Wilbur’s watch.”

“We managed to track them to this dimension,” Daniel added, “We just don’t know quite where in the dimension they are.”

“Techno suggested that you might have some info for us since you’re in charge of the camp.” Wilbur explained, “We want to get them back to their home dimension before anything else goes wrong.”

Phil nodded, “Who is it exactly that you’re looking for?”

“Their names are Ty and Connor,” Ted informed him, “Connor was last seen wearing a blue suit, Ty in a pink hoodie.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a picture and handing it to Phil, “One of their friends gave me this picture,” The picture was of three people; Connor, a younger man in a pink hoodie who Wilbur assumed was Ty, and a taller man in a black suit and red tie who Wilbur had never seen, ram like horns wrapped around the side of his head. Ted pointed to Ty and Connor, “These two are who we’re looking for.”

“Oh, I know those two.” Phil said, handing Ted back the picture, “Yeah, they passed through the camp yesterday. I offered them a tent for the night. I’m not sure if they took the offer or if they took off again, but if they’ve been in the camp recently, someone's sure to have seen them. I could take you guys to check the tent and ask around.”

"Would you? We'd be incredibly thankful for the assistance." Daniel said.

“Of course, I’d be happy to.” He turned back towards his tent, “Just let me grab a few things from my tent, I have some stuff I needed to drop off around camp today that I might as well get done while we’re looking around.” 

“You didn’t tell me anybody new passed through camp yesterday.” Techno complained jokingly as Phil walked by him, “I feel like as your right hand man that’s the kinda stuff I should know.”

“Yeah, well, maybe if my ‘right hand man’ didn’t spend his entire day farming yesterday he would’ve come back into camp before two in the morning and I would’ve been able to brief him on the events of the day.” Phil threw back in response, disappearing into the tent.

Ted and Daniel spoke quietly between each other as he did, Ted slipping the picture of Connor and Ty back into his pocket.

Wilbur turned to Techno, “Well, he seems… friendly.”

Techno chuckled, “Yeah, he’s certainly something. He’s a good guy, I think you guys will get along once you get to know him more.”

Tommy had, at some point or another, moved from beside Daniel to next to Wilbur, “Hey, Techno, can they, like, fly?”

“What?”

“The bird people, can they fly?”

“Oh, yeah, totally.” Techno answered.

“Yo, that’s sick!”

Wilbur laughed at his response.

“Well, most of them can,” Techno added, “Phil can. Some of them have, like, injuries and stuff that make it so they can’t, and some peoples’ wings are too small, but I think most of them can.”

Tommy nodded eagerly, “Ah, I see, I see.”

Phil emerged from the tent once more, shrugging a satchel over his shoulder, “Okay, let’s go,” He gestured for Daniel and Ted to follow him. He placed a hand on Techno’s shoulder, “Why don’t you and Wilbur stay and hang out while we go check things out?”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure you two have got plenty to catch up on. I can handle this on my own.”

Techno nodded, “Thanks Phil.”

“Can I stay?” Tommy asked, looking up at Techno and Wilbur.

“Uh…” Techno looked, to Wilbur, who shrugged, “I guess so. Shouldn’t you ask Ted and Daniel first though?”

“Why? They’re not in charge of me.”

Techno raised an eyebrow to Wilbur, who just shrugged, rolling his eyes.

“Whatever you say, kid.”

Daniel, who had heard the conversation, ruffled Tommy’s hair as he walked by, “Don’t cause problems while we’re gone, Tommy.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the… the, uh… what’s the word… starts with an e?”

“Epitome?” Techno suggested.

“Yeah that one, epitome!” He completely mispronounced the word, “I’m the epitome of not causing problems.” He paused, looking up at Techno, “How did you know that was the word I was thinking of?”

Techno shrugged.

“He’s a nerd.” Wilbur answered, receiving a punch in the shoulder from Techno, “Ow.” He laughed, “Worth it.”

“Leaving you three alone may be the worst decision any of us have ever made.” Ted said, pulling Daniel along to follow Phil, who had already walked off and was talking to someone at the entrance of a tent a few yards away, “Don’t die while we’re gone.”

And with that the three were left alone. They sat around the fire in the middle of the circle of tents.

“So, theoretically,” Tommy began, “If one of the people with the wings, one of the ones who can fly, were to want to, could they, like, carry someone who can’t fly while they were flying, so then it’d be like they were both flying?”

“Well, I guess it’d depend on whether or not the particular person could actually carry another person, but yeah, ‘theoretically’ they could.”

Tommy’s eyes lit up, “Okay, cool.” He stood up, “Completely unrelated, I am going to go find a very buff bird person.”

Wilbur pulled him back down onto the log they were sitting on by the collar of his jacket, “Absolutely not.”

“Ah, dammit.” He pouted, crossing his arms and sliding off the log into the snow.

A few more thwarted attempts at flight later, the three had settled into conversation, trading stories much in the same way Tommy and Wilbur had when they were wandering through the snow, and how Wilbur and Techno had on their way to the camp. Techno revealed at some point that the reason he knew some of the people in camp who could fly would be able to carry someone else with them was because Phil had once swooped in to save him from a creeper he hadn’t noticed by picking him up off the ground and flying a few feet in the air, which had gotten Tommy’s attention enough to stop him from trying to run off again. Of course, it had resulted in his attention now being focused on relentlessly making fun of Techno for almost getting blown up by a creeper, but it was better than having to chase him around camp to stop him from harassing someone into trying to fly with him so Techno dealt with it.

The sun got lower in the sky as they talked, and eventually, as sunset was approaching, Ted, Daniel, and Phil appeared again, Connor and Ty nowhere to be seen.

“No luck?” Wilbur questioned.

Daniel shook his head, “We think they stayed the night in the camp, but they must’ve left at some point because no one seems to have seen them since this morning.”

“We should head out and try and find them before they get too far away from the camp. If they’re traveling away we don’t want to be an entire day behind them.” Ted suggested.

“I’d strongly advise against that.” Phil broke in, sitting down besides Techno at the fire, “The sun sets quicker than you’d think it does, it’ll be pitch black out there within the next half hour, and you don’t want to be caught out in the tundra at night, it’s easy to get lost and mobs spawn like hell out there in the dark, you’d be better off staying here for the night.”

Ted frowned, “Okay, but certainly if it’d be dangerous for us it’ll be just as dangerous for Connor and Ty out there.”

“”Well, you’ll be no good to them if you get mauled by monsters.” Techno said.

Ted sighed, sitting down, “Okay, I suppose you have a point there.”

“Hey, don’t worry too hard about it, you guys can stay the night here, and we can head out first thing in the morning to try and find them.” Phil suggested, “Techno and I would be happy to help you guys search for them.”

Daniel sat down next to Ted, “Yeah, I definitely prefer the option that doesn’t involve us getting lost in the snow in the middle of the night.”

“I second that.” Tommy added, flicking a small chunk of ice over the fire at Ted.

Ted flinched as it hit him square in the forehead, “Tommy, you are lucky I have the self reservation to not start a snowball fight at this point in time.” He laughed, flicking the tiny ball of ice back at Tommy, where it landed in his lap. 

“Anyways, yeah, I’ll admit, you guys are right, we’ll stay the night.”

And so the six sat there around the fire, chatting, eventually eating dinner, telling stories and laughing, ignoring the tall task ahead of them the next day, if only to pretend like things were normal again for a few hours.


	16. Around the Fire

“I don’t know if after all this we’ll ever do any interdimensional travel again, but if we do I’ve gotta show you H-3:43:17 some time.” Wilbur said.

“Oh, is that so? What’s so special about that one?” Techno asked.

It was dark out now, and they were all still sat around the fire. Tommy was bombarding Phil with questions about the dimension while Phil was trying to have some conversation or another with Ted and Daniel, leaving Wilbur and Techno to talk amongst themselves.

“I just think you’d like it, honestly.” He continued, “I’ve stolen stuff from there a ton of times, because it’s just like… everyone there is so rich it literally doesn’t matter what you take because it barely affects them. They’ve got this entire economy based around diamonds, and all of them just have stacks and stacks of them, and they sell just about anything and everything in this big community center in the middle of the world. There’s bunches and bunches of shops filled with different resources and some of it is completely useless stuff, stuff specifically meant to scam people out of diamonds in creative ways, and they’ll spend their diamonds on it anyways, knowing it’s a scam, because they just have that many diamonds to waste.”

“And it’s not like back home where everyone interacts with each other just because we live in the same area, they don’t just tolerate each other, they’re actually all friends, and they trust each other to just stick to the unspoken rules of the place enough that they’re aren’t really any security systems or stuff to keep people from stealing or anything.”

“And that’s not even mentioning the builds these people make with all these absurd amounts of resources they’ve got access to. It’s legitimately insane some of the things these people have built.”

“It sounds like you know the place pretty well.” Techno laughed.

Wilbur shrugged, “Yeah, I guess I’ve visited there pretty often.” He chuckled, “A lot of interdimensional travel is like that though. In a lot of places I’ve been I would think ‘Man, there’s nothing like this back home. There’s never this many resources to go around,’ or ‘there’s hardly any buildings like this back home’, or ‘we never get weather like this,’ Or whatever, and I would always think, ‘I wish I could show Techno this’, and it was always a bit ironic, because, y’know, the only reason I was traveling in the first place was because you had gone missing, so I wouldn’t have had any of those experiences in the first place if I did have the ability to show you any of it at the time.”

Techno nodded, and a silence fell between the two of them as they watched the fire flicker in the cold breeze.

“Techno, I’m worried that after all we’ve gone through, there’s no normal for us to go back to, that home… won’t be home anymore, even if we try and go back to the way things were… before.”

“I get what you’re saying, I’m worried too, but… I’m not sure you're quite thinking about it right.” Wilbur turned to Techno, eyebrows raised, and Techno continued, “Home isn’t a place, it’s… whatever you make it. We can be home without things going back to the way they were. I think as long as we’re both happy with where we are, we’ll be home.”

Techno turned to face him, “Wil, I don’t know what we’re going to do from here, where we’re going to go, if anything will ever be ‘normal’ again, but I know that it’ll be okay, because, against all odds, we ended up crossing paths again, and wherever we decide to go from here will be our new normal, whether or not it aligns with our past view of normal or not. Things have changed, we’ve changed, but we’re still here, and we’re still friends, and that’s enough.”

Wilbur nodded, a small smile making its way onto his face, “Yeah, I guess we’ll just have to figure it out as we go, huh?”

“Yeah. Whatever happens... happens, and we’ll deal with it. I mean, we made it this far, we can certainly handle whatever comes next.”

Wilbur nodded again, looking down at the snow beneath his feet. “Y’know,” He started, kicking a bit of snow to reveal the rough dirt beneath, illuminated by the fire “When you first disappeared, I blamed it on Squid.”

“Did you now?”

“Yeah, yeah, I did.” Wilbur laughed halfheartedly, “Not at first, really. Honestly, it wasn’t the strangest thing for me to wake up and find you gone, I assumed you were out working on your farm, but I realized as I was leaving to go off to the market that you weren’t actually on any of our islands at all. And that was a bit strange of course, since you hadn’t left any note or anything to say you were going anywhere, but I didn’t really freak out yet, I assumed you’d just forgotten. You’d done that before, it wasn’t too worrying. It wasn’t until the next day when I realized you’d never come home that I knew something was really wrong.” 

“I asked around the community center, checked all the different pvp places you hung out, searched all the auction houses. No one had seen you, so I searched all around our base and I couldn’t find any clues, except the pocket watch, which… I really didn’t know what to do with it.” 

“And so I took the time to think about it for a few days, hoping that you might show back up in that time, and, obviously, you didn’t. I got to thinking, there were no leads, so I needed to try and figure out if there was anything that had happened in the recent past that might’ve led to you going missing, and all I could really think about was when we broke into Squid’s base the day before. It got to the point where the only thing I could imagine was that Squid had gotten home and had been told about the break in and had gotten pissed off and done something in retaliation.”

“I went back to their base, pushed right past Squid’s team to see him, demanded answers,” Wilbur looked up at Techno, “Y’know, I don’t even thing he was all that upset about the actual accusation I was throwing at him, I think it just, kinda, made him sad, honestly, like, to see how upset I was. It was obvious to me even then that when he said that he had nothing to do with your disappearance he was telling the truth. I don’t think he had even known you were missing until then. He offered to help me look for you a few times after that, I think he missed your potato farming competition and all, but we never really had any luck, obviously.”

“That’s all kind of ironic, actually.” Techno said, looking towards the fire again, “Cause I actually took the pocket watch from his base, from the back of one of the storage rooms around his farm. It was probably his.”

Wilbur blinked a few times in disbelief, “You're serious?”

Techno laughed, looking back to him, “Yeah, legitimately. So, you were kind of a little bit right.”

Wilbur looked between the fire and Techno a few times, mouth hung open, eyebrows furrowed, “This is the worst thing I’ve ever learned I think, Techno.”

“You think he ever looked in the chest it was supposed to be in, realized it was gone, and connected the dots to what happened?” Techno said, the amusement clear in his voice.

“Techno this is the worst.” Wilbur said, trying desperately not to smile and failing.

“I’m going to relentlessly make fun of him for this whenever we get back there.” Techno stated, smiling, “And then I’m going to once again crush him in potato farming.”

“He has a two year lead now Techno.” Wilbur laughed, raising an eyebrow.

Techno shrugged, “I’ll manage.”

“You can’t be serious.” Wilbur laughed.

The night went on like this for a while. It was late by the time they all finally decided to get some sleep. They divided up into tents; Daniel staying with Phil in his tent, Wilbur staying with Techno in his tent just next door, and Ted and Tommy staying in a previously empty tent a bit further into camp.

Meanwhile, just near the fire they’d sat at before, hidden between two tents, stood two figures, who had been listening in on the conversations of the night for quite some time.

“Ty, I think I have an idea.” Connor said, looking down at the pocket watch in his hands.


	17. Fine Print

It was dark out, and incredibly cold. Snow had started to fall at some point that night and strong winds blew through camp. Wilbur had been, up until this point, fast asleep, but the feeling of something jabbing him in the side had stirred him. He swatted at whatever it was tiredly with one hand, not quite fully awake, while attempting to rub the sleep from his eyes with his other hand. He heard, vaguely, what he realized was a voice speaking to him, though he wasn’t quite sure what it was saying.

“What?” He mumbled, his voice quiet and hoarse as he reached over to where he had left his glasses beside him before falling asleep. 

“I said, ‘Wake up’, idiot.” A familiar voice met his ears, harsh but quiet, just barely above a whisper.

Wilbur blinked as he put on his glasses, and as his vision cleared properly he was met with a scene that his half awake brain was having a bit of trouble processing.

The entrance of the tent, closed when he had fallen asleep, was now open, and the dim light of the still barely burning fire outside illuminated the two figures standing above him. Wilbur had to squint in the low light to make out exactly who it was he was looking up at. One he just barely recognized as Ty. He seemed slightly nervous, his pink hoodie and hair dust by snow. The other, the one who had spoken a minute ago, was Connor, who seemed, comparably, to not be the least bit concerned about what was currently happening.

Connor held, in one hand, the pocket watch he had taken from Wilbur, the one that had led to all of them ending up here in the first place. In his other hand he held a sword, pointed down at Wilbur in what was, very obviously despite Wilbur’s current fogginess, a threat. It wasn’t just any sword though.

Wilbur glanced between Connor standing over him, and Techno, still asleep on the other side of the tent. Techno had, before they’d gone to sleep, left his sword, the gold sword Wilbur had made for him, leaning against a wooden support beam that held up the center of the tent. It was no longer there.

“Connor… “Wilbur addressed him as he sat up, trying to keep himself as calm as possible as to not escalate the situation.

Connor brought the sword closer to his chest, “You’ll keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you, Wil.”

Wilbur took one look down at the sword before nodding, putting up his hands to show he had no plans of causing problems. This was, in the most literal sense, extremely bad.

Connor took a step back, “Get up.” He demanded, gesturing with the sword for him to do so.

Wilbur hesitantly did as he was told, a bit of annoyance starting to break through the nervousness now that he was really waking up. He glanced between Ty and Connor, standing just a few feet from him, and Techno, still fast asleep on the other side of the tent.

“Now what?” He asked, focusing on Connor, who he was growing increasingly resentful of by the second.

Who did this guy think he was? Stealing from him, stealing from his friend, threatening him when he only came here to help? He had to wonder how exactly things had led to this.

“How heavy of a sleeper is your friend over there, Wil?” Connor asked, throwing a glance towards Techno. He turned the watch over in his hands as he spoke in such a way that Wilbur wasn’t quite sure if it was a subconscious thing or if Connor was specifically doing it to mock him.

“Depends on the night.” Wilbur responded vaguely, a bit of his anger seeping into his tone.

Connor’s eyes narrowed in annoyance, “Well then, I guess we’ll just have to get this over with quick then.” He chided.

“Wil, by the fire earlier tonight you talked about a world you’ve stolen from, one with a large economy, and a lot of people with a lot of money. I want you to take my associate and I,” He gestured beside him to Ty, “To that world.”

Wilbur furrowed his eyebrows, “H-3:43:17?”

“That’d be the one.”

“What the hell do you want in H-3:43:17?” Wilbur questioned, his confusion clear.

“Does it really matter to you?” Connor sighed, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, I’m at least a little confused,” Wilbur responded, “From what I know you seem to have a pretty nice life back in S-3:9:11, you’ve got, like, a successful business, and friends that are waiting for you back home. I’m just… not sure why you’d want to go to H-3:43:17.”

Connor rolled his eyes, “If you really must know, I’m tired of living in my business partner’s shadow. Our business is failing, we’re in dept, there’s not really any stable economy back home. I want out, and this other world that you’ve described seems like a fresh start.” The explanation was shallow, but seemed, at least in some part, true.

Wilbur looked between Connor and Ty skeptically. Ty avoided meeting his eyes.

“Look dude,” Connor held up the watch, “I don’t know how to work this thing, I just want you to take us to H-3 whatever the hell you called it and then we can go our separate ways.”

“So,” Wilbur said, “If I open the portal for you, you leave and you’ll leave my friends and I alone from then on?”

“Sure, yeah, whatever floats your boat, after we’re out of this winter hellscape you’ll never have to deal with us again.” Connor shrugged.

Wilbur was unsure of this. Connor was proving to be an increasingly untrustworthy figure, and Wilbur didn’t have any real way of knowing if what he said was true, but if he just… got Connor and Ty through the portal, assuming there was no funny business, he could just send the I.D.T.A. after them again and everything would be fine. This could be fine.

“So?” Connor asked, holding out the watch to Wilbur, sword still in hand.

Wilbur reached out for it, but hesitated, “Let me get this straight, I do this for you, you two leave, and I never have to deal with either of you again?”

“After we’re gone, we’ll never cause any problems for you again.” Connor reassured him.

Wilbur studied him for a moment, a last ditch attempt to make sure he wasn’t making a massive mistake. He took the watch.

Connor took a step back, lowering Techno’s sword but not dropping it, and gestured for Wilbur to go ahead, a content smile having made its way onto his face. Wilbur sent one last skeptical glance towards Connor before focusing his attention on the watch, adjusting the settings to open a portal to H-3:43:17. Connor and Ty stood behind him as he did, watching him work. After a few seconds he pressed the button at the top of the pocket watch, and a portal began to appear in front of him, leading straight into the main room of the town hall in H-3:43:17’s shopping district. 

Maybe, if the winds weren't howling outside the three of them would’ve heard the frantic whispers on the other side of the diamond throne.

“There you go,” He said, “H-3:43:17.” He turned to face Connor and Ty, being immediately met with the sword now at his throat.

“Pocket watch.” Connor said, holding out his hand. Wilbur handed over the watch, expecting the sword to fall and this all to be over, assuming that Connor was just being over dramatic now.

The sword did not fall.

“Now, step through the portal.” Connor said.

_“What?”_

“You heard me.” Connor responded, pressing the sword closer to him.

Wilbur took a step back, aware that the portal was just behind him, “That’s not what I fucking agreed to, Connor. You said we were done if I did this for you.”

Connor took another step towards him, adjusting his grip on the sword to more effectively threaten Wil, “I said I’d leave you alone _after_ we were gone, not that I’d make the mistake of walking through a random portal to another dimension again without having someone else safe test it first, or that I’d leave you here to report me to the interdimensional cops or whoever the hell you came here with. I’m not a goddamn idiot, Wil.”

“What the hell man, you can’t do this to me!” He glanced around the tent in a panic, his gaze landing first on Techno, who stirred in his sleeping bag when he raised his voice, but didn’t seem to wake up, before catching sight of a shadow on the wall of the tent, which he barely processed even seeing in his panic, before landing back on Connor in front of him.

This couldn’t happen, he couldn't lose Techno again just a day after having found him.

Connor seemed to be growing impatient, “Step through the portal, Wil.” Connor demanded, more forcibly then before, jabbing the sword towards Wilbur, who stumbled back in response to avoid getting stabbed, only to trip back through the portal.

*****

"Scar you better be doing something good with all the profits from these road access passes, cause this is getting a bit out of hand buddy." Tango stated, begrudgingly placing a diamond block under the sign for his rocket shop before pulling down the road access pass pinned to the sign. 

"Oh, don't worry, all of the diamonds are going to the winners of the road building competition." Scar assured him, using his sleeve to wipe a smudge off his monocle. 

"Really?" Tango question raising an eyebrow. 

"Yeah, of course! I wasn't gonna hoard them or anything." He chuckled, putting the monocle back on and leaning against the arm of the diamond throne. Jellie, who had been laying on the cool surface of the diamonds, stretched and came to sit beside him. 

"You really gotta, like, clarify somewhere that these are going towards the road building competition." He laughed, "Everyone would probably be a lot less hesitant to pay up then dude." 

"Oh no, people don't think we're just pocketing them, do they?" Scar questioned as he pet Jellie. 

"We could!" Bdubs piped in as he walked down the stairs that lead to their office spaces, Joe by his side.

"I mean, yeah, I guess we could, but... we probably shouldn't." Scar shook his head. 

"Uh, yeah, you definitely shouldn't." Tango agreed, sending a look towards Bdubs, who shrugged. 

"Just an idea." 

"Personally, I think we should burn the diamonds in lava in a show of disavowal," Joe suggested, "To say that, while we may participate in the profit seeking systems of the shopping district as its elected officials, we do not actually approve of the downfalls of that system and are not affected by the greed induced by its entrapments." 

"Joe, that's very on brand of you, but I think you would probably be the only hermit happy to see that many diamonds go up in smoke." Tango stated, "Like, that may be a worse idea than B's." 

"Yeah, I don't think that would help our approval rating very much." Scar admitted, "I'm gonna have to veto that one Joe." 

Joe sighed, "It was worth a shot." He lamented, shrugging. 

Bdubs glanced out the open doorway of the town hall, "Oh my god, what time is it?" He exclaimed, looking down at his watch, "Oh my god I let you all keep me up until almost 3am!" 

Tango laughed, "Come on, it won't be the end of the world B." 

"It's going to totally throw off my sleep schedule, Tango!" He glanced between his watch and the moon outside, "Oh, this is... uh... what's that thing that Mumbo always says?" 

"Pants?" Joe offered. 

"Yeah, that one!" Bdubs affirmed, "This is pants! This is totally pants!" 

Scar burst out laughing, falling backwards into the seat of the diamond throne in the process, startling Jellie further up the throne. Tango began laughing as well pretty quickly afterwards, leaning back against the road access pass board. Joe wasn't having much more luck holding back his own obvious amusement. 

"It doesn't sound the same when I say it." Bdubs pouted, his frustration clear. 

"I'm pretty sure it's an accent thing," Joe suggested, trying desperately not to burst out laughing. 

As the other three continued to bicker halfheartedly Joe noticed something on the other side of the room, a small glow, that slowly began to grow larger, growing to about the size of an average doorway, a scene on the other side being slowly revealed, bordered by blue and pink light as a cool draft swept into the previously warm town hall. 

Joe raised an eyebrow, "Uh, y'all?" He called the others attention, his gaze not moving from the opening on the other side of the room. 

There was a man standing in the center, back-lit very softly by obstructed moonlight, with a pocket watch in his hands. He wore a loose, vintage button up and brown suspenders. 

"Hey is that-" Bdubs was cut off as Tango pulled both him and Joe down behind the diamond throne, quickly shushing both of them. Scar twisted around to look over his shoulder at whatever the three of them were looking at, falling from the throne with a thud. Tango was quick to pull him back behind the throne as well, and Jellie lazily jumped from her perch as well, using Scar as a landing board before approaching Tango for attention.

"There you go, H-3:43:17." The man on the other side of the opening stated as he turned around to face two figures behind him, one of which was holding a sword to his throat. 

"That's the guy from the other day." Bdubs exclaimed under his breath, looking towards Tango, who only nodded, his gaze not leaving the portal on the other side of the room. 

"Pocket watch," A second voice on the other side of the portal demanded. 

"I feel like we're in the middle of a situation we certainly shouldn't be involved in." Joe whispered. This entirely felt wrong, like he was witnessing something no one was meant to witness. 

"Should I do something? I feel like as the mayor I should do something." Scar stated, peeking out from behind the throne. 

"Now, step through the portal." The second voice on the other side of the portal sounded again. Joe assumed that was the figure with the sword talking, though the low lighting of the other room made it hard to tell. 

"What?" The first figure was incredulous. 

"No, you definitely shouldn't do anything Scar." Tango insisted, pulling Scar back a bit so that he wouldn't be so obviously peeking out. Tango had a feeling this wouldn't go well if the man with the sword found out they were watching. Of course, the four of them could probably take him on if needed, but better not to risk it if it could be avoided. 

"You heard me." The man with the sword responded, stepping a bit closer to them, a bit further into the light, and pushing back the man, who Tango had chased through the shopping district just a few days before, a step closer to the portal.

"That's not what I fucking agreed to, Connor. You said we were done if I did this for you." The man closest to them raised his voice ever so slightly, mostly angry, though there was, Joe could tell, an ounce of fear tugging on the edges of his voice. 

"Who even are these guys?" Scar questioned, pulling Jellie closer to him, a nervousness growing in him as the two grew more aggressive. 

"No clue, but they're definitely bad news, we caught the one in the suspenders stealing from Keralis's shop the other day." Tango explained, his eyes not leaving the scene in front of them. 

"I don't know if he's the one we should be worried about right now." Joe chimed in, his eyebrows furrowed in concern as he watched the scene unfold from behind Tango. 

"I said I’d leave you alone _after_ we were gone, not that I’d make the mistake of walking through a random portal to another dimension again without having someone else safe test it first, or that I’d leave you here to report me to the interdimensional cops or whoever the hell you came here with. I’m not a goddamn idiot, Wil.” The man with the sword asserted, stepping closer to the man in the suspenders once more, adjusting his grip on his sword. 

" _Dimension_?" Bdubs questioned, leaning forward to peek over the edge of the throne more effectively. 

Tango shushed him, pulling him down. 

"What the hell man! You can't do this to me!" The man in the suspenders exclaimed, his panic growing much more obvious very quickly. 

"Step through the portal, Wil." The man with the sword demanded once more, stabbing towards the man in the suspenders. Tango pulled the other hermits further behind the throne as the thief stumbled backwards through the portal, hitting the floor of the town hall with a thud.

There was a moment of tense quiet as the man in the suspenders coughed, the air having been knocked out of him when he fell. The sharp sound of dress shoes making contact with tile echoed through the town hall as the coughing ceased. All of the hermits were holding their breath, waiting for the next move. 

Tango peaked over the edge of the throne, gesturing for the others to stay in place as the man in the suspenders struggled to his feet, holding the back of his head, the man with the sword watching in amusement as he did.

"See, Wilbur, it's not that hard to just follow directions." He stated, his annoyance with how things had gone clear. Standing beside him, shorter and more obviously nervous, was a young man in a pink hoodie. The portal to the other world they had just stepped through closed as the man with the sword pressed a button on the top of a pocket watch.

Tango swore he saw someone else in the darkness behind them before it did.

The thief looked furious, and exhausted, and panicked. He was still catching his breath, swaying on his feet where he stood, and he was absolutely seething as he looked at the man in front of him.

"What, cat got your tongue, Wil?" The man with the sword teased.

"Connor you fucking bastard…"

"Oh, so we're getting feisty now!"

"I trusted you, Connor!"

The man with the sword, Connor, laughed, "Dramatic much, dude?" He scoffed, "News flash, I didn't lie, Wil." He said, twirling the sword in his hands. "I said I would leave you and your friends alone, and that you would never have to see us again, _after_ we left that winter hellscape. I plan to keep that promise perfectly, you're free to do whatever you want now that we’re here, I won't interfere, I just needed the assurance that you wouldn't come back to be a nuisance later."

"You stole from me, threatened me, and I helped you anyways!" The thief exclaimed, "You don't realize the damage you've just caused!"

"Oh, well then, inform me, Wil. What exactly have I just done?"

"Do you know how long I've been traveling for?" The man asked, something in his voice breaking, "How long it took me to find Techno after he disappeared? Do you know what that was like for me? I gave up everything! And the second my old life was back within my reach, the second I was reunited with my only friend, my only _family_ , the second I had the chance to give all of this up, you've torn it straight from my arms!"

The room fell silent other than the rough breathing of the thief. Tango, Bdubs, Scar, and Joe were all frozen behind the throne, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes. Even Jellie was still, seemingly realizing the fragility of the situation they were handling.

"You can’t live in the past forever, Wilbur."

"Connor, you have to let me go back."

It was quiet.

"Connor-"

"Wilbur you can't just depend on other people for your happiness." He turned a knob on the watch without looking away from the thief.

And he pressed a button on the side, opening a new portal beside him. It did not open into the same place as the previous portal had.

Wilbur’s face fell, “Connor, what are you doing?”

Connor pressed the button a second time, and as the portal began to close he tossed the watch through, where it disappeared into a sea of grass before the portal closed behind it.

And Wilbur stared on in disbelief, trying to speak, stuttering in a panic, nothing comprehensible coming out. 

Connor’s voice was low, a mix of contempt and pity, maybe regret. It was the most honest he had sounded the entire night, "Get with the program, build yourself something new."

He and the thief stared at each other for a few seconds, silent. He turned to leave, gesturing for the boy in the pink hoodie to follow him. Muttering, "Come on, Ty." Quietly under his breath. Ty hesitated before following after him.

Wilbur took a second to watch them walk away, a mix of panic and conflict on his face. There was a moment where Tango could practically see the cogs turning in his head. Then, he ran towards Connor.

"Connor!" The kid in the pink hoodie exclaimed, alarmed by the sudden advance.

Connor turned back quickly, seeming panicked to see the attempted attack. He stepped awkwardly to the side as quick as possible, and, as Wilbur stumbled past where he had been standing moments before, he swung the sword in his hands without thinking, swiftly hitting the thief over the back of the head with the hilt of the sword, knocking him to the floor. 

Tango flinched as he watched the man fall. 

He fell roughly, and did not move to get up. There was a moment where it felt like you would've been able to hear a feather hit the floor were it to fall, as the man with the sword stared down at the man he had struck with wide eyes, waiting to see if he would stand back up.

And the man did not. 

Connor stashed the sword away in his inventory, hesitating before moving to straighten his suit. 

"I didn't expect to actually have to use that…" He said quietly, his facade of confidence having fallen.

He stood there for a second, just looking down at the man in the suspenders. Eventually he shook his head, turning towards the door once more.

"Come on, Ty," He beckoned for the boy in pink to follow after him, "Let's… let's get out of here before anyone catches us here."

"Y-yes sir." Ty replied scurrying after Connor as he began to walk out the doors of the town hall. 

Ty paused in the doorway of the town hall, and he glanced back in, his gaze first landing on the unconscious thief, before moving to Tango and the group of city officials huddled behind him. His eyes widened at the sight 

His gaze swept over all of them quickly, nervously, before he made eye contact with Tango. They stared at each other for a moment, equally as panicked, a thousand silent words passing between them. 

"Come on, Ty!" Connor called for him. 

Tango nodded, and, after a second, Ty nodded back. 

"Coming!" He called back over his shoulder, quickly turning and darting down the stairs of the town hall after Connor. 

It was silent for a moment, as they waited for something more to happen, but it did not. Tango sighed in relief, leaning back against the diamond throne and sliding towards the floor. 

"Oh my god that was so stressful." 

"Yeah that really went from 0 to 100 back to 0 real quick." Joe said, looking absolutely dumbfounded, like a thousand thoughts were running through his head. 

"I... What did we just witness?" Scar asked, holding Jellie close as he peaked around the throne at the unconscious man laying on the floor of the town hall. 

"Something we certainly weren't supposed to see." Bdubs chuckled nervously, his gaze following Scar's. 

They all laughed along with him, equally as uneasy. 

It faded slowly back into uncomfortable silence. 

"Man, this is a situation we have to deal with now, isn't it?" Tango asked, sliding further towards the ground. 

Joe nodded, "We should probably call X."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I should apologize for the emotional damage this chapter may have caused you, but... I'm not going to. I've been waiting to post this chapter since last September. I posted the first chapter of this story last October. This has been coming for a long time :)
> 
> I'm working on a drawing to go with this chapter, so watch out for that on tumblr over the next week or two if you hang out over there :]
> 
> Sorry, not sorry <3

**Author's Note:**

> Find me @ hiding-under-the-willow on tumblr for art, extra content, and updates about the story


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